225. MORE ON NAZI COAL LIQUEFACTION

Previously, we've described the efforts of Dr. Anthony N. Stranges -- a historian from Texas A&M. Dr. Stranges is an authority on Nazi coal liquefaction, and manages the Fischer-Tropsch Archive.

The following link is another well-researched resource on Nazi coal liquefaction from a military site. The paper was written in 1981 by Dr. Peter W. Becker of the University of South Carolina, and gives numerous interesting details on how liquid fuels decided the outcome of WWII in Europe. Octane played a surprisingly critical role.

The paper also describes some (apparently aborted) plans by the West Germans to scale up coal liquefaction in the early 1980s.

The Role of Synthetic Fuel in World War II Germany

-- by JD