In an interesting post at AutoBlog, they discuss briefly European initatives toward alternative fuels. A new European organization called Alliance for Synthetic Fuels in Europe ASFE see the United Press International press release , is trying to develop and encourage the use of synthetic fuels made from natural gas (GTL) coal (CTL) and BioMass (BTL.) AutoBlog quote : "ASFE is apparently touting synthetic fuels as Europe's solution to reducing its petroleum dependency, in contrast to the U.S. government's promotion of ethanol."
I think any program that works towards the reduction of reliance on petrolium is a good thing. But as a layman, I notice a couple of problems and questions. First is GTL or Gas to Liquid, the gas is Natural Gas, which burns cleaner than Gasoline, but still releases greenhouse gases and is not an unlimited resource. CTL or Coal to Liquid, is worse in my opinion, again not a renewable resource, and also a polutant as bad as petrolium. The last BTL or BioMass to Liquid, well they're not clear on that, but that seems to be the cleanest of the three. Here's a definition I found online for Biomass . As it states, the "green-ness" of the biomass varies on what is used.
I still think that for the US, Bio Diesel and Ethanol are the nearest solution for our indepndance from foreign oil. The benefits would be to our economy, health, environment and national security.
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