Ecologically benign motor fuels and petrochemicals from alternative raw materials

Physicochemical foundations of various processes which comprise the single stages of natural gas processing into motor fuels are considered. Among them are: novel process of syngas production by methane reforming using rocket technology, direct dimethyl ether synthesis from syngas and its conversion into the ecologically benign gasoline, an advanced technology of methanol synthesis, as well as methanol transformation into pure hydrogen, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis with increased selectivity. New developments made by the Topchiev Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis Russian Academy of Sciences (TIPS RAS) in this field are discussed. In this light, the achievement of a global goal, to make synthetic motor fuels cheaper than their oil counterparts, appears to be a solvable task for the nearest future.