2022
archival print/dibond/grey frame
27-39.4 inches, (edition 5 + 2 a.p.)

Coal liquefaction was an important part of Hitler’s four-year plan of 1936, and became an integral part of German industry during World War II. After the war, Germany had to abandon its synthetic fuel production as it was prohibited by the Potsdam conference in 1945.

South Africa developed its own CTL technology in the 1950s during apartheid. The South African Coal, Oil and Gas Corporation (Sasol) was founded in 1950 as part of industrialization process that the South African government considered essential for continued economic development and autonomy. South Africa had no domestic oil reserves, and this made the country very vulnerable to disruption of supplies coming from outside, albeit for different reasons at different times. 

One of the first coal liquefaction was founded in Sasolburg in 1954, an industrial town in the far north of the Free State near the Gauteng border.