The Technical and Economic Aspects of Creating a Subsector for the Production of Synthetic Liquid Fuels in Ukraine

Abstract

The article proves that today Ukraine finds itself in a situation where it depends solely on imported supplies of light oil products to meet its motor fuel needs, which is unacceptable from the point of view of the country’s energy and national security, and the solution to this problem lies in the plane of organization of motor fuel production from the country’s own natural resources. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the technical and economic foundations for creating a synthetic motor fuel subsector in Ukraine. To achieve this aim, the authors define the classification of alternative motor fuels; provide a comparative description of the energy content and scope of use of different types of motor fuels, and also provides comparative characteristics of synthetic along with the best grades of natural oil; assess the compliance of synthetic gasoline and diesel fuel with the Euro-4 standard; considers the technical-operational advantages of synthetic analogues of oil fuel over other alternatives. Based on the carried out analysis, the article proves that, given the limited resource capabilities of Ukraine’s motor fuel production from oil and natural gas, the production of synthetic liquid motor fuel (SLMF) from coal raw materials should be recommended for development in the country; the raw material base for the production of synthetic liquid fuel is researched. The article also analyzes the peculiarities of methods and specific technologies for producing synthetic liquid motor fuel from coal and determines that the technology of synthesizing synthetic liquid motor fuel using the Fischer-Tropsch method with preliminary production of synthesis gas by steam-oxygen gasification of coal is advisable for development in Ukraine. Taking this into account, the resource and product balance of the full cycle of synthetic liquid fuel production is formed, a general production scheme of the industry subsector of SLF in Ukraine is developed, technical-economic characteristics of the national and regional industrial complexes for the production of SLF are presented, and the structure of the subsector for the production of SLF in the country is proposed.