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• During the energy crisis of the 1970's and 1980's, alternatives to fuels derived from crude oil became necessary. Up to that time, only two processes of fuel synthesis had any commercial significance. The first was the Bergius process that used an oil/coal slurry and an iron catalyst to produce synthetic crude oil. The second was the Fisher-Tropsch process, which produced hydrocarbons from coal. Both of these processes produced hydrocarbons with poor selectivity and quality. This problem was overcome by the Mobil methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) process. The Mobil process of methanol conversion over a highly selective zeolite catalyst makes possible the synthesis of a high quality, high octane gasoline.

• The MTG process was discovered by accident. The zeolite ZSM-5 was being used to convert methanol into a fuel additive. The process instead produced di-methyl-ether, which with increasing space time next produced olefins (alkenes), and then paraffins (alkanes) and aromatics. The final mixture of paraffins and aromatics is commonly known as gasoline.