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Sasol (Suid Afrikaanse Steenkool en Olie (Afrikaans for South African Coal and Oil)). is a South African company involved in mining, energy, chemicals and synfuels. In particular, they produce petrol and diesel profitably from coal and natural gas using Fischer-Tropsch process. The company has factories at Sasolburg and Secunda (Secunda CTL) and has taken a stake in projects under construction in Qatar (Oryx GTL), Iran (Arya Polymers) and Nigeria (Escravos GTL). Sasol senior officials are also from time to time involved in senior level negotiations with their China counterparts with the view on establishing a chemical plant in China, being the fastest growing economy in the world.

Liquid fuel from coal


Erika Schutze


Every day 120 000 metric tons of coal are transported to a plant at Secunda, near Johannesburg, where they are converted into 150 000 barrels of oil a day.

The plant belongs to one of South Africa's success stories, Sasol, the parastatal company that invented and perfected the technology for making petrol and diesel from coal.

Sasol's main plant in the province of Mpumalanga - the only commercial coal-to-liquid plant in the world - produces about 150 000 barrels of synthetic fuel a day and meets about 28% of South Africa's annual fuel needs.

Coal-to-liquid (CTL) technology makes economic sense only in a world of high oil prices: synthetic fuels become economically viable when oil prices reach $50 a barrel. As a result, Sasol has come of age. Until 2003, oil prices averaged $25 a barrel, making $45-a-barrel liquid coal economically prohibitive, but today oil prices hover at $70-a barrel, so the demand for CTL technology is booming.

Worldwide liquid-coal production is expected to rise from 150 000 barrels a day in 2007 to
600 000 in 2020 and 1.8 million barrels a day in 2030.

Nowadays - amid soaring oil prices and instability in the Middle East - the Sasol petrochemicals group is being courted by countries across the globe. Sasol usually charges a fee for licensing its technology, but concentrates on establishing a share ownership in the facilities once built - with the aim of ensuring a slice of the long-term profits.
Sasol is now the world's biggest producer of synthetic fuel, having branched out to gas-to-liquid technology too. Its profitability has also been boosted by expanding its end products to include plastics, fertilizers and explosives. Its larger chemical portfolios include polymers and solvents, and their intermediates, waxes, phenolics and nitrogenous products.

The group also has a retail presence - selling liquid fuels and lubricants through a growing network of Sasol convenience stores and Exel service stations.

http://www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com/ind ... -from-coal