probably costs more energy to make the coal into a liquid than you get out of burning it. same with ethanol fuel, what a joke that was
That would be captured in the cost of making the energy. At $30/barrel in China and around $60/barrel in the US, coal-to-liquid (CTL) is an efficient and economical form of making petroleum... The production of corn ethanol, on the other hand, is skewed due to government subsidies making the uneconomical form of energy seemingly "economical."
Speaking of corn ethanol, I did some research and:
"When corn costs $2 a bushel, it costs between $1 and $1.20 to make a gallon of ethanol. Because ethanol has only two-thirds the energy content of gasoline, that’s equivalent to $1.50-$1.80 per gallon of gasoline (wholesale), or $50-$60 per barrel of oil. At that price of corn, ethanol is competitive with gasoline with the current subsidy for gasoline blenders when oil costs $30 a barrel or more. It is economically competitive with gasoline without a subsidy when oil costs $50 a barrel or more. It takes a little more than a third of a bushel of corn to make a gallon of ethanol, so, if the cost of corn rises from $2 to $3 a bushel, that adds about 35 cents to the cost of a gallon of ethanol. At $1.50 a gallon, ethanol competes with gasoline without a subsidy when oil costs $70 a barrel or more."
http://www.energyfuturecoalition.org/biofuels/fact_ethanol.htm#4Corn is now around $6/bushel. That means that oil has to be at $140-$150/barrel in order for corn ethanol to be competitive (without a subsidy)... right now, oil prices are below $100/barrel. That shows you how inefficient and uneconomical corn ethanol is compared to CTL, which can be produced at $30/barrel in China and around $60/barrel in the US.
