My dad said for me to look this up can anyone explain the process for me.

basically, you react the carbon with hydrogen to make various hydrocarbons(mostly methane) and then you go through the process of polymerising them.

 

It is a very simple process when you say it like that but the polymerising step requires a fair bit of energy and is kind of difficult to control accurately. that and any plant will need intensive and regular maintenance as the reactor and separators will get clogged by tars, waxes and soots. and you would still need fractionating columns to get the few useful fractions.

 

its a simple process with a whole lot of complications that make it very very expensive. It certainly would never be used for something as trivial as fueling a car. when the extractable oils run out then it will probably be used to manufacture plastics and speciality materials but fuel will likely be something completely different like hydrogen. possibly a biofuel such as ethanol

"It certainly would never be used for something as trivial as fueling a car. "

Oh yes it was.

South africa had lots of coal but they thought the people with oil were the wrong colour to do business with so they had to make their own oil.

They have been doing this successfully for deacdes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasol

Im from South Africa and i went to one of the foctories that do it . Quite an interesting process but they didnt give any proper info > they said it was a company secret but i think the guide just didnt know

Carbon dioxide (chemical formula: CO2) is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure. Carbon dioxide exists in Earth's atmosphere currently at a globally averaged concentration of approximately 385 parts per million by volume.[1] Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas as it transmits visible light but absorbs strongly in the infrared and near-infrared.

 

Carbon dioxide is used by plants during photosynthesis to make sugars which may either be consumed again in respiration or used as the raw material to produce polysaccharides such as starch and cellulose, proteins and the wide variety of other organic compounds required for plant growth and development. It is produced during respiration by plants, and by all animals, fungi and microorganisms that depend on living and decaying plants for food, either directly or indirectly. It is, therefore, a major component of the carbon cycle. Carbon dioxide is generated as a by-product of the combustion of fossil fuels or the burning of vegetable matter, among other chemical processes. Over very long time scales (thousands to millions of years), concentrations are influenced by emissions from volcanoes and other geothermal processes such as hot springs and geysers and by the dissolution of carbonates in crustal rocks.

dude, read the topic. He's asking about CARBON. not carbon dioxide.