During the oil embargo, in the winter 1973174, parts of Western Europe present ed an almost war-like aspect on Saturdays and Sundays: no traffic on the high ways, no crowds at ski resorts and other weekend entertainment places, no gaso line at the pumps. Living and teaching then in that part of the world, and discussing the situa tion with our students, we came to the conclusion that it would be timely to col lect the fine chemistry already known at the time in the field of conversion of coal to gasoline and other chemicals, and by this way help to draw the attention to this important alternative to crude oil. The idea of this book was born. The energy shock of the early seventies has been healthy and of great conse quences in chemistry. Large amounts of research money have been put to work since, and our knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of coal-based chemistry has increased enormously. During several years it appeared inap propriate to write a monograph about a topic which was in the midst of such an impetuous development. Nevertheless, we collected, and critically selected, the upcoming work as it appeared in the literature, and also tried to provide some modest input ourselves. Now, ten years later, the situation seems to be settled to a certain degree.
- ISBN13 9783642696640
- Publish Date 7 December 2011 (first published 1 June 1984)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country DE
- Publisher Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. KG
- Imprint Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K
- Edition Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1984
- Format Paperback
- Pages 232
- Language English