Synthetic Fuels (Dover Books on Aeronautical Engineering) Illustrated Edition

Although the text is a bit dated, the chemistry and technology covered appear to be completly applicable to today's subject matter. The use of practical metric units is a plus, considering the industries involved. I rate the work as an outstanding and excellent contribution.Lawrence W. Nisbet, P. E.Consulting Chemical Engineer

Very interesting. Also quite technical. Good examples. I suggest you understand Chemical engineering thermodynamics if you want to get the most from this book.

This is a relatively old publication. However, it provides a very comprehensive review of synthetic fuels and it is a very good introduction for anyone interested in the subject. I recommend it to anyone in this business.

The book has been expedited in very good condition and almost immediately.Very interesting book covering a broad spectrum of applications and techniques.

This book was written for an engineering graduate course at MIT, but it is surprising readable.It is a technical book, so you do need an adequate technical background to read it. After two chapters on the technical fundamentals, five chapters were devoted to specific synthetic fuels technologies (three on coal, one on oil shale/tar sands, and one on biomass), followed by two chapters on environmental and economic issues. Lots of data are provided, and with the fundamentals provided one can use these data to make back-of-the-envelop calculations to quantitatively assess some of the currently popular synthetic fuels ideas, such as ethanol from corn---and to realize what key issues remain to be solved in order for such ideas to be viable.I recommend it highly to all who are seriously interested in the general topic of energy, and the role synthetic fuels can play in the future---particularly to the technical writers who are assigned the task of writing simplified-for-the-general-public articles for the public media.

This book is authoritative in giving excellent descriptions of fuel synthesis technology as it existed at the time of the original publication (early 1980s) but anything newer is not mentioned at all because this is simply a reprint of the old edition. Take as just a representative example, direct coal liquefaction which covers SRC, EDS, H-Coal, but nothing about the multi-stage processes that evolved later in the 1980s and early 1990s which significantly advanced that technology, and elements of which figure in the commercially operating Shenhua direct coal liquefaction plant that started in 2008. The authors could have put some work into this to bring this volume up to date and keep it a premier text on synthetic fuel technology (which has advanced more than they admit in the comments in the preface); as it is now it is of historical interest only.