Synthetic Fuel - Germany's REAL Wonder Weapon in World War II ('25 - '45)

[@jimslancio]

Germany also devoted a lot of industrial might to fixing atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia for fertilizer and explosives.

[@kenergixllc527]

Not much in Germany the last several decades.

[@russellking9762]

They also devoted a lot of industrial might and much needed manpower into carrying out the holocaust as well.

[@bennyklabarpan7002]

@@russellking9762 Not true compared to other powers when you factor in enemies captured. Germany did have more illegal colonizers like jews and gypsies though

[@togowack]

@@russellking9762 Not really the death camps mostly relied on the railroad which ran on coal which they had in abundance. We could take a lesson from the Germans on self sufficiency and being innovative during peace time not having to rely on other countries.

[@russellking9762]

@@togowack Sticking to my guns....took a lot of logistical support to round up transport house and murder 6 million..plus the SS Totenkopf Division running the camps when they could have been up at the front which they were eventually but not at the beginning

[@binaway]

In 1945 my father, a POW, walked past the remains of a large synthetic oil plant. He described as like a plate of black spaghetti. A pile of blackened and bent pipes over a kilometer long. The bombers had completely destroyed it.

[@chalinofalcone871]

"The Standard Oil group of companies, in which the Rockefeller family owned a one-quarter (and controlling) interest,' was of critical assistance in helping Nazi Germany prepare for World War II. This assistance in military preparation came about because Germany's relatively insignificant supplies of crude petroleum were quite insufficient for modern mechanized warfare; in 1934 for instance about 85 percent of German finished petroleum products were imported. The solution adopted by Nazi Germany was to manufacture synthetic gasoline from its plentiful domestic coal supplies. It was the hydrogenation process of producing synthetic gasoline and iso-octane properties in gasoline that enabled Germany to go to war in 1940-and this hydrogenation process was developed and financed by the Standard Oil laboratories in the United States in partnership with I.G. Farben." [Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, Antony C. Sutton, 1973]

[@ForageGardener]

​@@chalinofalcone871don't forget IBM and Coca Colas contributions and how all of these companies collected payment at the end of the war and profited from it all. IBM was paid for all the computing technology the Nazis used

[@rtqii]

@@chalinofalcone871 True that. Then they financed the bomber production that destroyed the synthetic fuel plants, doubling their money.

[@arostwocents]

What happened to all of Germany was truly tragic. The terror bombing was experienced by my grandma. 😢

[@tylerclayton6081]

@@chalinofalcone871 Tell me you’re jealous of America’s wealth and power without telling me your jealous of America’s wealth and power 😂 Seriously what is it with you people. Why spread anti American propaganda? Why so obsessed with the USA?

[@johnweerasinghe4139]

Explains clearly why Operation Barbarossa was extremely critical to relieve Germany of the pressure from the Allied sanctions. If Hitler had won Barbarossa Germany would have been self-sufficient in oil, food, additional industrial capacity and manpower. His Luftwaffe fleets , 11 million Wermacht troops would have been intact. Hitler and Germany lost when Zhukov defeated Barbarossa outside Moscow on 5th December , 1941 2 days before Pearl Harbour and 6 days before Hitler declared war on America. Context! Hitler's and Nazi Germanys survival died on the Eastern Front. Yet no Hollywood movies. So people have no clue of the importance, scale and savagery on the Eastern Front thanks to Hitler's biggest land grab in history.

[@brendonnz1964]

Barbarossa 2 is presently being fought in the Ukraine.

[@mrhassell]

I think that is a well known fact.

[@LiftOffLife]

If Churchill had teamed up with the British Empire the world would not have suffered under the heel of the you know bankers and Communism.

[@0Zolrender0]

A great informative video. I also loved that you narrated this yourself and didn't use AI. Respect mate.

[@stephenhosking7384]

Yes, his accent is much better than AI!

[@ristube3319]

It’s nearly unintelligible. I hate AI voiceovers, but I can understand them.

[@arostwocents]

Agree, much better than AI. If you can't understand it the problem is with you, not the video.

[@jacqueslefave4296]

This same process was used by South Africa for decades to get around sanctions under apartheid. In fact, they improved it and the United States seriously looked at it during the 1973 Arab oil embargo.

[@Rustedinmyshackleferd]

Right…let me guess africans landed on the moon too right? Or did they come from a space colony in the nigglity galaxy according to the we waz kangz and qwangz crowd 😂😂😂

[@danielkemp4860]

SASOL still produces 160000 barrels a day, making us (South Africa) one of the worst CO2/GHG producers 😂

[@Michael-CharlesAust-ee5oo]

While on horseback in Wyoming Lindsey Williams saw a man locking up the oil wells telling him it was government order.

[@jacqueslefave4296]

@@danielkemp4860 Good, CO2 makes great plant food, greenhouse experiments have shown that even small increases in atmospheric CO2 dramatically improves plant growth and fruit/vegetable crop yield.

[@chevy1221]

@@jacqueslefave4296 yes, if we can reach 800-1000ppm plant growth speed will literally double. Would probably sole world hunger for good, truly incredible that no one talks about this.

[@aurorathekitty7854]

In Europe during WW2 oil was in such short supply alot of private vehicles use wood gas to run. It's a very simple yet effective technology. I want to eventually build a wood gasifier myself and get an engine to run off it.

[@Steve-mk6rq]

Try pyrolysis .. Diesel from plastic which is %80 processed gasoline.

[@billwilson-es5yn]

​@@Steve-mk6rqNot gasoline but ethylene.

[@SweatyFatGuy]

I make ethanol from cattails, run my cars on it, and when I get to where I can make enough the trucks will run on it as well. Wood gasifiers clog engines with soot and ash, its worse than the carbon deposits left by gasoline. Gasifiers work, but they are down on power, do not transition well with throttle changes, so using them in a stationary engine such as a generator would work better than a vehicle. You still have to clean it often, but it does work and its relatively simple to do it. Ethanol leaves everything inside the engine and fuel tank very clean, no varnish or carbon left over. Plus you can run high compression with it, one of the Pontiac 455s in my summer daily drivers has 13:1 compression, another has 11.5:1 with iron heads which would require race gas to not flatten the upper connecting rod bearings. Germany used ethanol to power their jet aircraft, the Me262 and He162 both used ethanol fuel. The panzers could run on multiple fuels, not just diesel. There are a few ways to run diesel engines on other fuels, the one I find most amusing is hemp seed oil. Once the oil is pressed and cooked out of the seeds, they can be used to produce ethanol, so hemp lets you make two fuels. Takes a lot of hemp seeds to make fuel though, they are quite small.

[@828enigma6]

I think Japan also used wood gas powered vehicles during the war. Don't know what process was used.

[@SweatyFatGuy]

@@828enigma6 there were also trucks that ran on coal using the same process. Any fuel that will smolder with low oxygen can be used in a gasifier.

[@finallyfriday.]

My grandfather was a doctor of chemical engineering who worked on this program in ww2.

[@autodidact537]

And we should care because....?

[@EJisArete]

@@autodidact537 He has good genetics.

[@finallyfriday.]

@@autodidact537 Because you're watching this KZbin video which shows the subject means something to you, like the rest of us.... or you're just trolling.

[@daveweiss5647]

​@autodidact537 how about you just be nice to people?

[@castrogonzalez614]

@@autodidact537Because it’s interesting.

[@kenergixllc527]

Fischer Tropsch is a process for many things. For synfuels, the product is a very waxy synthethic crude which has to be cracked to be useful. Germany actually decided to use a process which operated at much higher pressures and used the sulfur contained in coal as the catalyst

[@kenergixllc527]

Fischer Tropsch reaction is how methanol is made as well.

[@billwilson-es5yn]

​@@kenergixllc527They might use that process to convert CO2 into methanol and methane.

[@dennisfox8673]

I can’t recall which specific process it was (possibly F-T?) but the allies used a process very similar to the German ones, but rather than make liquid fuel from coal, they used to improve crude refining to produce more of the desired fractions of fuel-especially aviation gasoline. I was a flunky geologist in the oilfield 20+ years ago who was also a history buff, and not a chemical engineer so the details are a tad fuzzy.

[@kenergixllc527]

@@dennisfox8673 The process Germany did use was used to hydrocrack Vacuum gasoil by Standard Oil pre WWII, built in Baton Rouge. FT uses natural gas reformed into syngas. The hydrogen and carbon monoxide go through a tubular reactor to make a very waxy syncrude which has to be cracked into refined products such as gasoline, diesel, etc...

[@gregorymalchuk272]

​​@@kenergixllc527The other process you are thinking of was coal hydrogenation AKA the Bergius Process. It could use the iron sulfide in the coal, but also external copper, nickel, or tin oleate catalysts to directly hydrogenate pulverized coal suspended in recycle oil and subjected to high temperatures and hydrogen pressures. Fischer-Tropsch and Hydrogenation didn't compete, they were complementary. Hydrogenation made up the majority of production and produced good gasoline. Fischer-Tropsch produced moderate quality gasoline, good quality fuel oil, diesel, and kerosene, as well as waxes, industrial alcohols, organic acids, varnishes, etc. Fischer-Tropsch waxes were amenable to cracking into good quality gasoline components.

[@davidtaylor4832]

During the 1920's and 1930's Britain was producing petrol from coal, it was called Coalene.

[@RomoloGessi31]

It isnt the same process. Coalene was a aromatic mix derived from coal distillation. FT process is a sinthesis of CO and H2 that produce alkan not camcerogen as aromatics

[@davidkinney4486]

IG farben was the innovator of both synthetic fuel, as well as developing synthetic rubber. During the pre-war period of the 1920s, IG Farben linked up with their business partner, U.S Standard Jersey Oil. Working together both companies have benefited from each other: such as the the American solution for the production of synthetic rubber tires, of which later on was vital for the war effort.

[@pearlygeoff3837]

Also developed the fuel for use in high compression engines.

[@davidkinney4486]

That's correct: it was Standard Jersey Oil that developed high-octane aviation fuel, as well as the production of lubricants.

[@chalinofalcone871]

@@davidkinney4486 "The Farben memorandum states that the Standard Oil agreements were absolutely essential for I.G. Farben: The closing of an agreement with Standard was necessary for technical, commercial, and financial reasons: technically, because the specialized experience which was available only in a big oil company was necessary to the further development of our process, and no such industry existed in Germany; commercially, because in the absence of state economic control in Germany at that time, IG had to avoid a competitive struggle with the great oil powers, who always sold the best gasoline at the lowest price in contested markets; financially, because IG, which had already spent extraordinarily large sums for the development of the process, had to seek financial relief in order to be able to continue development in other new technical fields, such as buna. The Farben memorandum then answered the key question: What did I.G. Farben acquire from Standard Oil that was "vital for the conduct of war?" The memo examines those products cited by Haslam-t.e., iso-octane, tuluol, Oppanol-Paratone, and buna- and demonstrates that contrary to Standard Oil's public claim, their technology came to a great extent from the U.S., not from Germany." [Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, Antony C. Sutton, 1973]

[@twostep1953]

After the oil embargo of the 1970's, the U.S. government became interested in how Germany did it - and hired my professor of History of Germany (Austrian immigrant parents) to translate the German documents. But I think they lost interest before they ever figured it out.

[@binaway]

If I remember correctly it took 11 tons of coal to make 1 ton of fuel.This required the opening old abandoned mine. The nearly free labor from POW's to mine the coal, dad being one, helped minimize the costs.

[@johnkanji8588]

The USA already had a synthetic fuel facility in Texas 1950s.

[@billwilson-es5yn]

The US Government decided it would be faster and cheaper to drill more oil wells.

[@chriscarbaugh3936]

Really its an exhaustive and intensive, costly and wasteful endeavour that produces poor quality fuel.

[@ViceCoin]

Big oil took care of it.

[@foxhoundms9051]

Insightful video on an under appreciated aspect of WW2. Amazing how quickly technology advances during total war. Too bad it isn't that way during peacetime.

[@EdMcF1]

But what might have been developed without bombed factories, killed workers, waste on military spending? We cannot tell, hence the broken window fallacy of Bastiat. Computers and biotechnology developed astonishingly fast in the late 20th century and continue to do so.

[@Ralphieboy]

We still spend more on military than any other budget point...we are just not actively at war (at the moment)

[@foxhoundms9051]

@@Ralphieboy yeah and it's a waste of our money

[@Ralphieboy]

a form of welfare for corporations, engineers and communities with defense plants or military bases.

[@foxhoundms9051]

@@Ralphieboy welfare, another waste of money

[@eurovnik]

Great video. Allied strategic bombing of synthetic fuel plants was highly effective, unlike the area bombing of cities favoured by Harris. The Strategic Bombing Survey states "in attacking Germany's synthetic oil plants, the Allies selected an existing bottleneck and sought to draw it tighter." An unforeseen benefit of targeting German synthetic oil plants was that they were often colocated with other chemical plants. Coincidental damage to those plants further damaged German war production. Once the synthetic fuel industry had been bombed sufficiently to cripple supply internal combustion engine vehicles, the allies began to target other transport infrastructure, principally railways. The ensuing damage meant that German divisions struggled to detrain anywhere near Normandy to counterattack after D-day. Phillips O'brien's book "How the war was won" is excellent on this topic.

[@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe]

What. Did we use Tomahawk missiles with GPS?

[@tpxchallenger]

It was still area bombing. Air forces lacked the precision to hit individual factories under wartime conditions without air supremacy. Same with rail infrastructure. Not until late 1944 when the Allies could hit individual trains using fighter bombers was it possible to effectively disrupt the German rail system. Rail track is quickly repairable.

[@ottovonbismarck2443]

Very good ! It wasn't all about fuel. Fischer-Tropsch synthesis helped a great deal in producing synthetic butter/margarine. IIRC, upon introduction in the 20s, it was primarily used for calories.

[@DerSchleier]

Veritas. Synthetic oil too. Synthetic oil lubricant was used within/on all panzer/sturmgeschutz variants while Allied factions used common non-transparent grease/oil lubricants.

[@TheWizardGamez]

i dont think they seriously made people eat that shit

[@ottovonbismarck2443]

@@TheWizardGamez They actually did.

[@andrewallen9993]

@@TheWizardGamez You purchase hydrogenated oil of all types all the time in your supermarket nowadays :)

[@murrayterry834]

rockefellar medicine and food development.

[@stevenamartin]

As a young man I remember the meme that the oil companies secreted the synfuel process. The problem was that combustion engines just won’t run on coal, so the Germans found that using immense amounts of it to make engine combustible synfuel while slow, expensive and toxic that it could supplement the fact that they never captured the oil fields needed to power the Wehrmacht.

[@chalinofalcone871]

"The Standard Oil group of companies, in which the Rockefeller family owned a one-quarter (and controlling) interest,' was of critical assistance in helping Nazi Germany prepare for World War II. This assistance in military preparation came about because Germany's relatively in- significant supplies of crude petroleum were quite insufficient for modern mechanized warfare; in 1934 for instance about 85 percent of German finished petroleum products were imported. The solution adopted by Nazi Germany was to manufacture synthetic gasoline from its plentiful domestic coal supplies. It was the hydrogenation process of producing syn- thetic gasoline and iso-octane properties in gasoline that enabled Germany to go to war in 1940-and this hydrogenation process was developed and financed by the Standard Oil laboratories in the United States in partnership with I.G. Farben." [Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, Antony C. Sutton, 1973]

[@stevenamartin]

@@chalinofalcone871 David Talbot’s “The Devil’s Chessboard” which focuses on the literally evil legacy of Allen Dulles covers the cabal of Corporatist prior to and into WWII who effectively supported Hitler. The book “Operation Paperclip” also brushes close to connections between our government and Corporations who conveniently overlooked and I would say downright supported the Nazis in the aftermath of WWII simply because they both hated the Communists.

[@chriscarbaugh3936]

Thank you for a very interesting and informative video. You touched on a few important points. I think we need to add that the German fuels, particularity aviation fuels where of a lower octane, which can and did severely limit aero-engine performance. The German synthetic aromatic fuel could give good performance, but only at low air temps and at fuel-rich mixtures. Even as early as 1940 there were shortages of high performance fuels for fighters such as CV2B, which the DB601N was designed for. The C3 was substituted throughout the war. C3 had a very high boiling point, meaning when it contaminated the engine oil (frequent on direct injection engines) it would cause rod bearing failures. The general lack of octane meant that German engines needed a bigger capacity to keep up with the Merlin and even the Alison and later they needed Nitrous Oxide (GM1) and Methanol Water injection MW50 to increase knock resistance to allow the engines to run higher levels of boost for more power, but these were limited in usage times and really just a band aid fix on a good engine design hampered by poor fuel.

[@mikebon8352]

Oil was the bottleneck... for Germany to winn the war... Also for Japan... after cuttoff and Pearl Harbour... it invaded Indonesie/Dutch Indies with Royal Shell ... All Carbon based wars... ww1 and 2... first mainly on coal: production and mobilty... WW2 it shifted more towards Liquid carbon based.. but still it depended heaily on coal... less than WW1...

[@SteppesoftheLevant]

Yeah. Now today in ukraine, war over natural gas pipelines

[@titanicisshit1647]

@@SteppesoftheLevant what???are you saying russia is invading Ukraine so they don't have to pay them pipeline transit rights?

[@TheWizardGamez]

@@titanicisshit1647 they won with the nord stream pipelines. and then they promptly got blown up

[@autodidact537]

Why are you telling us something we already know?

[@chalinofalcone871]

"The Standard Oil group of companies, in which the Rockefeller family owned a one-quarter (and controlling) interest,' was of critical assistance in helping Nazi Germany prepare for World War II. This assistance in military preparation came about because Germany's relatively insignificant supplies of crude petroleum were quite insufficient for modern mechanized warfare; in 1934 for instance about 85 percent of German finished petroleum products were imported. The solution adopted by Nazi Germany was to manufacture synthetic gasoline from its plentiful domestic coal supplies. It was the hydrogenation process of producing synthetic gasoline and iso-octane properties in gasoline that enabled Germany to go to war in 1940-and this hydrogenation process was developed and financed by the Standard Oil laboratories in the United States in partnership with I.G. Farben." [Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, Antony C. Sutton, 1973]

[@FlorinSutu]

From the video, it would result that the Germans started the industrial stage in/after 1936. I read a Romanian magazine printed in 1935, it was mentioned there that two plants were already launched in that year.

[@MrNaKillshots]

I didn't know about this aspect. Unbelievable, that they were barely protected.

[@danlowe8684]

They were very well protected. This is why their production numbers stayed high, as cited in the vid. We were dropping bombs from five miles high in order to avoid the flak guns. Any bomb that landed within a mile of its target at this altitude was considered accurate. In addition to altitude, obscured navigational aids, night conditions, wind, clouds, smoke from incendiary bomb fires, flight patterns for flak evasion - many things that made accuracy suffer. The Germans also had radar vectored fighters that were highly effective. The plants would be hit and cause damage, but they weren't decimated. But we are talking about bombing raids with 1000+ planes so it was essentially carpet bombing.

[@kristinarain9098]

I've always wanted to know about this subject. Thank you ❤

[@creightonleerose582]

Great presentation on an important detail... -In the vid, I dont recall any mention of the Germans SynFuel/SynBenzene being made from rather low grade Silesian Lignite, or 'brown coal' as its known. Which is the lowest grade of coal, made from decomposition, compaction & concentration of ancient peat bogs over vast spans of time. Lignite coal bearing a lower return & fuel octane rating of total fuel gained VS. the initial mass of physical coal investment in the process. Additionally, the totality of fuels used in the manufacturing process must be factored into end BTU capture, transformation/ sublimation, synthesis or REcapture rather.... Oft times, depending on the scientific process & end-user technology employed, which Germany had virtually led @ the time as scientific pathfinders, is still one step >> forward >>..But then 1-1/2 steps transport >> that mass tonnage of raw materials to varying fuel processing facilities, steel mills & other assorted types of manufactorums within a "Just In Time" type of delivery structure(s)...Via road or rail road lines in near constant repairs, compromised/captured, totally destroyed, or consistently re-routed road or rail networks...... -But if thats all scant natural energy resources youve got, then that & the combined power of national/collective/personal/corporate ingenuity is what a oil-poor nation is forced to use as a matter of course I suppose? Great vid W&H!....;)

[@patricklemire9278]

Good video. I think the real wonder weapon was the Panzerfaust. It allows a novice to destroy a tank for $40.

[@martinwarner1178]

True, got to be a brave man though, to use it.

[@Eric-kn4yn]

​​@@martinwarner1178und frau und Kìnder HJ.

[@Ausf.D.A.K.]

I love this subject, thank you for your work !

[@melgross]

Yes, synthetic fuel was a very good technology. But, it was far more expensive than other fuels. If it weren’t for war needs, where cost is less important, it would never have been practical. As far as Goring is concerned, several historians have said that he was too incompetent to be put in charge of anything.

[@johnanita9251]

Nah, I disagree with the remark about the Reichsmarchal. But in WW I, the German government obtained gold from seawater. It was expensive, but it was done out of sheer desperation. The same applies to synthetic oil.

[@melgross]

@@johnanita9251 you can disagree, but others who know far do believe that. I agree with them. He lacked interest. He had a short memory. He was far more interested in his accumulation of wealth and art, etc. He was appointed because he was a war hero and loved by the masses. But not because he showed competency in any particular area. He was wrong in almost every decision he made.

[@robdove4105]

@@melgross he was also addicted to morphine, which likely only made those issues worse.

[@Eric-kn4yn]

​@@robdove4105goering could run his toy trains vunderbar

[@freigeist2814]

Sometime technological advances are more expensive. But since Germany had no other choice if they wanted to become independend from the monetary aristoracy that residet in Britain and the US they had to find solutions. Germany also introduced a barter system with other countries to avoid having to pay in Pound Sterling or US dollar. Claiming someones incompetence from the comfort of his PC is a bit weak btw.

[@billevans7936]

Excellent Video

[@MoreFormosa]

Germany, Japan and Great Britain all ran vehicles, cars, buses…. etc from a wood gas generator attached to the vehicle. Japan continued using wood gas powered buses long after the war and you can see restored models driving people around at some Japanese car/truck shows. It’s amazing how little wood is necessary to produce enough gas to drive a 40 person bus many miles without having to add extra kindling into the burner tank.

[@pearlygeoff3837]

Aircraft engines made by Ford and General Motors. Opel 'Blitz' 3 ton trucks made by General Motors.

[@mcd3379]

The figures for oil consumption in 1938 show that Germany had no hope against the US - America's level of industrialisation and oil consumption was at a level that the Third Reich economically could not match.

[@chalinofalcone871]

"The Standard Oil group of companies, in which the Rockefeller family owned a one-quarter (and controlling) interest,' was of critical assistance in helping Nazi Germany prepare for World War II. This assistance in military preparation came about because Germany's relatively insignificant supplies of crude petroleum were quite insufficient for modern mechanized warfare; in 1934 for instance about 85 percent of German finished petroleum products were imported. The solution adopted by Nazi Germany was to manufacture synthetic gasoline from its plentiful domestic coal supplies. It was the hydrogenation process of producing synthetic gasoline and iso-octane properties in gasoline that enabled Germany to go to war in 1940-and this hydrogenation process was developed and financed by the Standard Oil laboratories in the United States in partnership with I.G. Farben." [Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, Antony C. Sutton, 1973]

[@halbouma6720]

I was recently watching another video where they're discovering Germany's sunken war ships have a lot of synthetic fuel in them which will be really bad for the marine life (compared to just bad for regular fuel lol) when it eventually starts to leak out. The legacy of WWII still continues. Thanks for the video!

[@molanlabexm15]

If this is in the German tech tree for a game I’m researching it.

[@peti7021]

well it is on a game called Hearts of Iron

[@mrhassell]

Bergius process was the primary method used for synthetic (Ersatz) oil manufacturing, called Kohleverflüssigung. This involved high-pressure coal hydrogenation or liquefaction. Friedrich Bergius (1884-1949) in Rheinau-Mannheim pioneered this approach in the years 1910-25. It allowed Germany to synthesize petroleum from its abundant coal supplies, ensuring a plentiful supply of liquid fuel, however it was also used as stated with the Fischer-Tropsch process: Invented by Franz Fischer (1877-1947) and Hans Tropsch (1889-1935) at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research (KWI) in Mülheim, Ruhr, this process also enabled the synthesis of liquid fuel from coal. By the mid-1930s, IG Farben, Ruhrchemie, and other chemical companies had industrialized synthetic liquid fuel production, resulting in the construction of twelve coal hydrogenation and nine Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) plants by the end of World War II.

[@DanielBelzil]

Fischer-Tropsch fuel is superior in every way to petroleum fuel. Can make it from coal or biomass.

[@jeffyoung60]

The Leuna synthetic fuel plants were a frequent target of the U.S. 8th Bomber Air Force based in England. Synthetic oil costs more to produce than natural petroleum. But in Nazi Germany's case, cost didn't matter. The German War Machine desperately needed petroleum, at whatever cost. While obtaining natural petroleum supplies from places like Romania and the oil fields in the Russian Caucasus, Germany invested in synthetic oil production to ensure its own domestic supply. Today the Holy Grail to producing synthetic oil cheaper than natural petroleum remains the storylines of science fiction. Some scientist discovers the revolutionary catalyst and process to cheap synthetic oil. Yet the world's oil producing national governments and the oil corporations will spend tens of millions of dollars to buy the formula so it can be suppressed. Failing that, the inventor is subject to clandestine assassination plots. The premise is the revelation of cheap synthetic oil will crash national economies and bring global economic catastrophe. Hence the ends justify the means and the formula and its inventor must never see the light of day.

[@michaelcanty4940]

Leuna was the site for a process to produce nitrogen in World War One. In 1917, the Leunawerke began producing nitrogen. Nitrogen was critical for the production of explosives and fertilizer. The chemist Fritz Haber won the Nobel Prize for the process.

[@Eric-kn4yn]

Oil is on the way out I think peak oil.

[@aurigo_tech]

"At current rates that would last only 4.5 days" - shows the amount of reliance we have now on oil with only a marginably larger population than then. In WW2 transport and heating was provided by other sources as well. Steam locomotives ran on coal, the army often moved or transported goods by horse, heating was done by coal and wood etc. Even for normal automotive transportation like cars and trucks they invented wood-gasing engines.

[@damianousley8833]

Unfortunately, synthetic fuel was a lot more expensive than natural petroleum products after refining. The demand for coal in Germany for industry could not meet demand for industry let alone synthetic fuel production and coal production fell towards the end of the war.

[@emperorvader283]

Germany had enough Coal for 170 years. It wasn’t a lack of supply, it was just too difficult and expensive.

[@damianousley8833]

@emperorvader283 What I was saying was they couldn't dig enough of it up or transport it. There was a coal supply shortage in the last three years of the war. Funny that slave labourers replacing skill and trained miners couldn't produce the same volume or more of coal when said miners were sent to die or be maimed on the eastern front. The allies bombing the hell out of the rail system and canals made transporting coal very difficult, so even if the Germans had constructed more synthetic fuel plants, it wouldn't have increased the supply of petroleum fuels.

[@Eric-kn4yn]

​@@emperorvader283vunerlable to bombing

[@JRyan-lu5im]

@@damianousley8833 Germany needed more chickens to lay the eggs to replace lost chickens ultimately. Even had synthetic refineries been even doubled, the point stands that it would still not be anywhere near enough to change the outcome. The war would have just taken longer and cost more lives on both sides. Barbarossa and the year afterwards was all a door breach offensive to reach the Caucuses before the national oil reserves depleted. Unsurprisingly, the year that sprung off from Stalingrad, the Luftwaffe imploded and Kursk flunked.

[@datvik7187]

i'm drinking an Energy drink, and despite this, the narration and the soft aural music is making me fall asleep.

[@normiedeathsquad40]

What does the :face smelling: orange: mean?

[@leemday5731]

This allso ment that piston engine air craft like the focker wolf was unable to reach the speeds that had been designed to achieve no matter how big an engine you could put in it strangled by lower revs and lack of leaded fuel engines wore out faster which all helped Germanys defeat in 1945

[@Eric-kn4yn]

Rush to get german jets into service speed and kerosine low grade fuel

[@duncanmacpherson2013]

The fuel quality issue was another advantage to the British and American air forces who had access to high octane fuel for their Merlin engined fighters

[@pearlygeoff3837]

Standard oil provided the technology for 'leaded' fuel suitable for high compression engines.

[@jimandmandy]

@@pearlygeoff3837 Leaded gasoline already existed. It was alkylate, essentially a synthetic high octane gasoline. Leaded aviation gasoline reached a peak of 145/115 Octane rating. Today's unleaded gasoline depends on alkylate in the blend.

[@pearlygeoff3837]

@@jimandmandy Thanks for that info.

[@ricksadler797]

Great video thank you

[@MicrophoneMichael]

I can’t even imagine if the oil off Norway was known in the 30s

[@reginaldmcnab3265]

Fuel from coal! Black magic

[@williampaz2092]

😂🤣

[@reginaldmcnab3265]

I read that the U.S. intelligence agency during World War II thought that aliens might be helping the Germans

[@dennisyoung4631]

“… and advanced organic chemistry applied at an industrial scale.”

[@dr.finnegan3949]

Satanic black magic, sick shit

[@bagpipe6417]

Highly interesting.

[@curtiscarlson8958]

Quite informative. Thnaks.

[@Unmannedair]

Holy crap, 30 million barrels is only 4 and 1/2 days! 🤯

[@user-nd5eq6yb9s]

GermanyS TECHNOLOGICAL PROWESS WASNT SECOND TO ANYBODY OF THAT ERA , TO HAVE THIS MUCH TECH YOU HAVE TO INVESG IN SCIENCES AND MANUFACTURING NOBODY IN THE WORLD HAD DONE THIS TO THE SAME LEVEL GERMANY HAD

[@kris8742]

It was called desperation.JUST SAYING but look at them now in the shyt

[@AckzaTV]

My grandson was a civil engineer in 1930s Germany and he worked on these programs

[@PrezVeto]

I assume you mean your grandfather. Or you're a ghost. 👻

[@piercehawke8021]

​@@PrezVetogood catch

[@tf9623]

Dang - how old are you then? About 142?

[@quintonrichards2088]

Back to the future before Back to the Future

[@simonmcowan6874]

That was amazing, thank you.

[@user-ke8if6ri9r]

I really enjoy videos about History. I've gotten comments from friends about my fascination with Germany during WWII. Brilliant scientific and engineering progress tied to horrific political motivation.

[@BasementEngineer]

user: In fact it was wonderful motivation! Just imagine, the gains of labour went to the workers who created it, not to international bankers who skim the cream off the work of others.

[@stevedelvecchio1783]

Than you would be interested in the funding and financing Germany received from wall street and American corporations to wage such a horrific war. JP Morgan and his General Electric , Henry Ford, and Standard oil all invested heavily in the Nazi government constructing power plants and munitions factory's all over very Germany. There was an aviation fuel additive in the 30s that was needed for high altitude flights called Tettra ethol. Germany wouldn't have an Air Force without it and only 2 companies in the world at the time had the means to acquire it. one of them was Standard oil of NJ. WW2 could have prevented with an embargo..but embargos don't make money..

[@andrewmacgregor8717]

Interesting 🤔. Can you adjust your audio? It sounds muffled; not crisp. (and no, it's not my settings. all other videos I've listened to today are just fine)

[@billotto602]

What an incredible video. Thank-you.

[@leemday5731]

Love this guy he sounds like a james bond baddie !

[@russellnixon9981]

As always very interesting

[@user-iw8pg8kq2q]

To foxhoundms. Remember this, in war time U can afford anything. Except defeat.😊

[@terrystephens1102]

Thank you for a very informative program - I had not known that the Germans had been so successful in producing synthetic petroleum products. 👌👌👌👌

[@BayouRoach]

Good BGM choice. "Simple & Effective"

[@ryandavis8245]

See this is things that should be taught in schools it’s brilliant

[@chriswade7470]

A lot of Germany’s crude oil came from Romania.

[@lemonator8813]

The thing was with synthetic fuel is that they needed coal almost more than they needed oil! It's like cutting off your hands to use as feet.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

for fuel they did need browncoal however, it is not like it came from nowhere but it is important to note that we can actually do nearly the exact same thing with the copious masses of plastic we produce constantly, those are essentially still made of oil after all, they can be turned back into it with relative ease and this could be done on an industrial scale by a country that simply refuses any new fossil fuel imports for the free market and removes most taxes and impositions on fuel but facilitates the importation of all non PVC plastics, for which they would probably get paid if played smart

[@paulds65]

Play at 1.25 to avoid falling asleep ;-)

[@joeambaye8681]

Thanks for this fascinating topic👍

[@stevecam724]

3 plants were stripped packed up and disappeared.

[@phillipdavidhaskett7513]

The high caliber of the German people has been suppressed by the geography of their nation. Germans who immigrated to the United States have contributed mightily to our national success.

[@kirishima638]

Set playback speed to 150% to make the narration bearable

[@dangeary2134]

Wow. Even back then, fuel consumption was ridiculous.

[@molybdaen11]

In other words: Nobody was ready for ww2, including Germany.

[@horatiohuffnagel7978]

Nope and they borrowed as much money as they could and were broke. They had to make it back through conquest. No choice but to go to war.

[@Winston-lf7sb]

and it was standard oil of new jersey who sent the additives needed to turn coal to gassoline.

[@danlowe8684]

I would think that of the one billion barrels the US consumed, much was used by merchant marines supplying the allies and a good amount ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic. The reason I say this is simply the amount of time we were involved, and the staggering quantity cited in the vid.

[@tylersmith1468]

And the US navy and USAF.

[@danlowe8684]

@@tylersmith1468 Yes, but the RAF and HMN were both running wild, too.

[@leestewart72]

Could the Germans have created bio-diesel from fish stocks in the Baltic Sea?

[@justinhaslam-lucas8711]

An overdue insight. Cool

[@JinKee]

Makes you wonder what would have happened if Daimler had invented the tesla electric car

[@99ron30]

Apparently the new "Power to Liquid" or "Power to X" methods of creating fuel owe alot to the German WW2 "Coal to liquid fuel" process. But I dont really understand the Science yet.

[@andrerousseau5730]

What about lubricant production?

[@billwilson-es5yn]

That was made from coal.

[@tech42long35]

Fantastic and Amazing.. This is INCREDIBLE information and very facinating. Great video

[@andrewcarpenter687]

The war for natural resources...who had them, who didnt, who was land locked, who was protected by water...Russia land mass alone is impressive...wild shit...

[@DoyleHargraves]

The weight of steel in 1 battleship would be enough steel for a couple synthetic fuel plants

[@freigeist2814]

That is why occupied Germany today was forced to close all coal mines. Furthermore they closed the nuclear power plants to make Germany totally dependend from foreign energy imports.

[@BobSmith-dk8nw]

The First half of 1942 - Germany was winning the war. They were only fighting Britain. If they had not attacked the Soviet Union in June - they could have put those resources into beating the British and taken the oil fields in the Middle East and Iran. But - in June of 1942 - instead they attacked the Soviet Union - which was selling them oil until they did that. They tried to drive all the way across to the Caucuses and on down to the oil Fields but they couldn't do it. How much easier it would have been to go through the desert. Then - in Dec. when Japan attacked the United States - they declared war on the US. They did NOT have to do that. Their Treaty with Japan was defensive - if the US had attacked JAPAN - then - they would have been required to join Japan. But - since Japan attacked the US - the Germans were under no such obligation. Hitler did it anyway. From then on - they were doomed. .

[@AckzaTV]

USA needing 1 billion barrels of oil vs 50-100m for all the other countries shows how serious america was even if we didnt bring as many soldiers, we burned the most oil with the most vehicles and won the war

[@Eric-kn4yn]

Charchol burners used to fuel cars

[@michaelanderson3096]

Electromagnetic warfare = magnetrons.

[@davidleonard1813]

No idea what process was used but i know coal wal heated to get oil from it to make petrol during WW2

[@sunroad7228]

Remove the non-stop background noise/music and re-upload the video.

[@vanzylbooysen4826]

Sasol south africa . After the war some German chemists help south africa developed sasol.

[@weofnjieofing]

Germany was by far the most advanced economy in the world. The fact it took the entire capitalist and communist economies to defeat it is testament to her strength at the time

[@billwilson-es5yn]

Germany didn't have an advanced economy before and during the war. Hitler wanted to capture the Soviet oil fields when he didn't have a way to bring the oil back to Germany. One option was to lay railroad lines while building rail oil tankers. Germany had a shortage of tank cars when the war started and couldn't take very many from the occupied countries since their economies and his occupation armies needed most of what they had. Germany wasn't able to build and operate any long distance pipelines due to having no experience with those or manufacturing the pipe, compressor pumps and operating stations. Germany couldn't use tanker trucks since that would consume too much gasoline, lubricants and tires.

[@georgejones1022]

The brilliance of the Germans was amazing. They were done in by their hubris and arrogance. The first war was completely avoidable. The second war was also an unnecessary exercise in destruction. Why didn’t they just develop and grow. What a waste.

[@svenneff]

I spotted Göring's belly before i spotted his face.😂

[@lucius1976]

Well, he was less big then todays average US citizen

[@nickgold4111]

Germany needs to get its coal mining, coal fired power plants and synthetic fuel plants back up and going.

[@NeovanGoth]

Fucking no. The external costs would be staggering.

[@Eremon1]

2:55 Hans and Frans will pump you up! (Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon SNL skit)

[@jeromedavis8261]

Great Plains syn fuel plant in Beulah North Dakota. The nations only plant of this kind.

[@ristube3319]

3:27 How does Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen make fuel? Isn’t carbon monoxide inflammable?

[@jackthepirate9233]

And we complain about pollution..

[@keithalaird]

I have a couple of comments about the German Synthetic fuel program . I get that the raw product of the two main processes was high grade kerosene at best, and the process tends towards heavier products like a diesel fuel. However, both thermal and to a lesser extent catalytic cracking weren’t unknown in the petroleum industry at the time. So I am surprised that the German chemical engineers didn’t use more of that technology. Also tetra eyethl lead was a known technology and octane improvement. Basically if you add enough lead,you can make high octane fuel from terrible feedstock. Which was basically what the US refiners frequently did before leaded gas was outlawed. Another thing that I find surprising is that the Japanese never had a major synthetic fuel program. It would have been no problem for Germany to slip a process diagram outlining the process into a diplomatic courier pouch and send it to the German embassy in Tokyo.

[@danlowe8684]

I don't think Japan had the coal necessary for production. Also, American Standard Oil sold the Germans the octane boosters necessary to fly their planes.

[@jacqueslefave4296]

When Roosevelt banned the sale of American oil to Japan, they made a pre-emptive strike on Pearl Harbor, and invaded Southeast Asia all the way to the Dutch East Indies, where there was lots of oil and supplied them for quite a while, enabled by our "Europe First" war policy.

[@danlowe8684]

Great point!! The thing that amazes me about WW2 is the complexity of subjects. One could argue that lack of fuel doomed Germany while another would point out that that they had plenty but couldn't supply the front lines because the horses and mules needed to haul it required 40% of supply transport space for fodder. @@jacqueslefave4296

[@billwilson-es5yn]

US refining engineers routinely tested captured German fuels to find all were of high quality. The German companies offered the Japanese to sell them a license to use their advanced technology before the war but were turned down. In 1944 the companies sent the Japanese the blueprints and manuals for free but the submarine transporting those was sunk en route to Japan.

[@danlowe8684]

@@billwilson-es5yn Wow!! Cool stuff, thanks!

[@tonydiesel3444]

The Ft process is amazing but solar generated hydrogen is the absolute best as long as the sun is shining and there's a little bit of water you can produce non-stop hydrogen for free with no labor and almost no work then simply run it through a dryer coalescent refrigerated refrigerated refrigerated

[@DerekCully]

By chance anyone familiar with the background music composer/source? Thank’s in advance

[@mwh3227]

I believe that one plant is in operation in South Africa?

[@josephd.4890]

These synthetic fuels are now part of your diet.They call them SEED OILS!!

[@Keckegenkai]

Welcome to Disturbed Reality..

[@redbaron9029]

Germany was a very great nation back then.

[@rtqii]

German steel production was could not keep up with the demands of both industry and the Nazi war machine. Those synthetic fuel refineries are made of steel. The German ore was very low quality, they could produce good domestic steel with it but the process was expensive and the output was not great.

[@Mrtweet81]

I never thought I would say this, but I miss an AI voice...