In the second World War, the Germans scientists discovered...

Answer by Mikey
Submitted on 9/30/2003
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In the second World War, the Germans scientists discovered the formula for synthetic gasoline, a cheap fuel, How do you know? but at the end of the war, the winning allies and their multinational oil companies stole it How do you know? and probably put it in a BIG safe. Why do you think that? Why anybody doesn't put some effort to get it or rediscover?? Because reasonable people know that there is zero evidence suggesting or supporting your aforementioned conspiracies. It's bogus. A cheap fuel and non pollutent is what the Mother Earth wants. That's true. So invent one, and become wealthy beyond your wildest dreams. Thank you for shopping at sucker.com. Others who have bought your theory have also bought: Perpetual Motion Free energy Water to Gas conversion pill The Roswell Incident Pyramid Building using Teleportation A subscription to "The Globe"

Answer by David
Submitted on 1/28/2004
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The Germans did make a type of synthetic fuel, since their supplies of oil and gas were being interrupted. The technology is widely known. Three issues come from this. The first is that the manufacturing of synthetic fuels is still far more expensive than refining crude oil. The second is that the "quality" of the product is poor. Last, the method of producing synthetic fuel used coal as the basic ingredient. So we would still be burning a non-renewable resource to provide energy. The answer lies in first, our consuming the remaining reserves of petroleum and thus driving up the price until alternative fuels become economical to use. Second, with the advent of gene manipulation, maybe we could develop plants or microbes that would produce petroleum as a byproduct of their respective life-cycles. Just an idea.

Answer by JGMagoo
Submitted on 1/19/2005
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I have also heard that Germany used some alcohol as fuel. Methanol can be produced from natural gas, and Ethanol can be produced from bio products such as corn. (Ethanol is the alcohol in alcoholic beverages.) Both types of alcohol make a satisfactory motor fuel. However they are far more expensive to produce and produce less energy per gallon burned, and in the case of Ethanol, it requires a huge source of fresh water to grow the corn, and fresh water is a resource that is also in increasingly short supply. As far as air pollution goes, the by-products of burning alcohol have been shown to be carcinogenic even though the particulate pollution is much better than gasoline or diesel. Not a great trade-off.

Answer by Trey
Submitted on 9/2/2005
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Like a lot of urban legends out there, this one appears to have its roots in Hollywood. A 1980 film called "The Formula," starring George C. Scott and Marlon Brando revolved around the idea that the Germans had perfected a process for making cheap synthetic gasoline, and a modern American oil company was killing off anyone who rediscovered the formula. As usual, Hollywood didn't let the facts get in the way of a bad story. The Germans did create a synthetic fuel from coal, but it was a complicated, wasteful and expensive process. Furthermore, the Germans practically exhausted France's coal reserves in just five short years just to keep running at minimal capacity. The results were not satisfactory: the Luftwaffe was effectively grounded for the final eighteen months of the war due to lack of aviation fuel, and the Wehrmacht could barely keep its tanks rolling even though it was a primarily horse-and-foot propelled force. There appears to be a small percentage of people who cannot distinguish between documentaries and summer blockbusters. See also: The Philadelphia Experiment.

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Question by yoffee
Submitted on 7/12/2003
Related FAQ: Gasoline FAQ - Part 4 of 4
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In the second World War, the Germans scientists discovered the formula for synthetic gasoline, a cheap fuel, but at the end of the war, the winning allies and their multinational oil companies stole it and probably put it in a BIG safe. Why anybody doesn't put some effort to get it or rediscover?? A cheap fuel and non pollutent is what the Mother Earth wants.

Answer by jimmyfingers
Submitted on 9/5/2003
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The Germans discovered how to make diesel and gasoline from coal as they were cut off from the middle East oil supplies, using Fischer-Tropsch technique. So did South Africa during its days of sanctions. It is not a non-pollutant or cheap. Just another way of refining hydrocarbons.

Answer by azza
Submitted on 3/26/2004
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Y do da americans get al da credit 4 things it is really unfair? No offence

Answer by hunter
Submitted on 4/23/2004
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cuz we're sweet like that

Answer by Superman
Submitted on 10/27/2004
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Pick up the book by Steve Shagan -- a novel called "The Formula " While not technically effective , it shows the political-economic issues at play

Answer by paul
Submitted on 1/27/2005
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although Mikey's post was highly sarcastic and rude, the perpetual motion example was about adequate. the main idea here is a fundamental concept of physics... every action has an equal but opposite reaction. and if a synthetic gasoline is made from coal, not only do you have to deal with smog and the greenhouse effect, but the coal supply will run out just as fast as oil will (which is predicted to be too expensive for most to afford by 2012). so, no, there's no avoiding the problems ahead, only lessening the amount of the problem, by switching to solar (which isn't a cure-all), preparing for the worst, and lessening our individual dependance on oil.

Answer by INOITALL
Submitted on 3/5/2005
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I MAKE GASOLINE EVERY DAY, IT IS VERY EASY, OLD TRASH, TIRES, PLASTIC BAGS ETC. ENOUGH TO RUN MY TWO FAMILY CARS. ONCE A MONTH I FILL UP THE CARS WITH GAS FROM A REGULAR STATION, THIS CLEANS OUT THE ENGINE AND FUEL LINES. IN LESS THAN TWO YEARS THIS METHOD WILL BE COMMON KNOWLEDGE, GAS WILL FALL TO LESS THAN $1.00 PER GALLON. THE WAR IN IRAC IS ABOUT DEMOCRACY, NOT OIL. ALSO THE TERRORIST DID INSTIGATE THE NEED TO PUT A DEOMCARCY IN IRAC. THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO STILL CARRY A FEAR OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE AND HIDE UNDER MYTHS AND LEGENDS, BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE TO THINK FOR YOUR SELF WHEN SOMEONE ELSE TELLS YOU WHAT TO BELIEVE IN AND HOW TO THINK.

Answer by Milan
Submitted on 5/24/2005
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We could have cheap efficient solar power for every energy need If: All the money donated to the US Govt. the sen. and con. and rep's etc.etc. from the lobbyist's for the oil and gas and auto makers, just to mention a few, was shut off!!! Problem solved

Answer by Malcolm
Submitted on 8/29/2005
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Answer to Davids answer: There are lots of ways to make fuel from plants now. You can get Ethanol from such plants as sugarcane. And to my understanding types of Canola and peanut oil are also candidates for an alternate fuel. The big companies don't want these to become feasible alternatives or they would go out of business. -_-

Answer by bolt
Submitted on 10/12/2005
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I do not have much info about the cost to make gasoline or diesel fuel out of coal. But I am amazed because our Government does not mention any of these possibilities. We have more coal than the Arabs or the Russians have oil. If our Government was serious enough about the energy independence, the synfuel as one of the solutions should have been mentioned in the last energy bill.

Answer by bolt
Submitted on 10/14/2005
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Since US has more coal, than the Arabs have oil, the synthetic gasoline, made out of coal would serve two purposes: it would get America closer to the energy independence and would create jobs for millions of people.

Answer by british
Submitted on 1/21/2006
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coz they're americans. that's why.

Answer by Genuine Draft
Submitted on 3/8/2006
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He's right about the synthetic fuel.. http://www.fossil.energy.gov/aboutus/history/syntheticfuels_history.html This is the link for the rest of the story.

Answer by Bibbety Bobbety Boo
Submitted on 4/4/2006
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Syn fuel = more expensive than that from oil, but much larger supply. Any organic material can be carbonized and turned into syn fuel- perhapse saturated with hydrogens with electricity from a nuclear reactor. In theory even the CO2 produced by the combustion of gasoline can be turned into pure gasoline... for a price to be paid in energy, of course...

Answer by tomvalois
Submitted on 6/19/2006
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Creating gasoline (or any other hydrocarbon fuel) requires only the successful manipulation of energy, water and carbon dioxide. My guess is that, eventually, we will use renewable energy sources (such as hydroelectric power, solar power or windmills) to produce hydrocarbon fuels. It is impractical to use currently-known renewable energy sources to power a car. But it might be quite practical to use those energy sources to produce a fuel that would then power a car.

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