What Will Come after Petroleum?

The 20th century saw the use of petroleum dominate the process industries and with it came the birth and growth of chemical engineering and chemical technology. We now are beginning to realize that the worldʹs petroleum reserves are not infinite. Because they are rapaciously being consumed, their costs are rising, and the time will come when we will have to look for a replacement for petroleum. Considering the worldʹs insatiable appetite for petroleum, the only reasonable large-scale source will have to be coal. There are three distinct paths from coal to its first product, syngas, the starting point for much of the organic chemicals industry and for the production of liquid fuels. In this first step, 60+ giant corporations have in the past all explored just one of these three paths. The other two paths were practically ignored. In this paper, I would like to see if it would be worthwhile at this time to explore the other two paths and to discuss their possible advantages.