Introduction

Abstract

The catalyzed hydrogenation and condensation of carbon monoxide to hydrocarbons and/or alcohols and other oxygenates have attracted much attention because of the need to develop alternatives to petroleum feedstocks. The origin of the development goes back to the pre-World War II Germany. Possessing large coal stocks, but completely inadequate oil resources, Germany was forced to undertake the transformation of coal into liquid hydrocarbons. As early as 1924, Franz Fischer published a book on this subject. In the following two decades, two processes were simultaneously developed to great industrial importance: the catalytic direct hydrogenation of coal at high pressure (Bergius process), and the catalytic normal to medium pressure synthesis of hydrocarbons from carbon monoxide and hydrogen (Fischer-Tropsch process). During World War II this development reached its zenith.