ABSTRACT
Exponential growth of Earth’s population projects itself on quickly increasing consumption of fossil fuel resources (natural gas, oil, and coal), which act as a foundation for production of fuels and numerous chemicals, such as fertilizers, plastics, engineering materials, and medicine, that enable a considerable improvement in the quality of living, compared with the standards of several decades ago. Nevertheless, fossil fuel reserves are limited, and their exploitation at today’s rate will lead to their extinction, resulting in drastic changes of life standards globally. Consequently, fossil fuel alternatives are being very intensively investigated, and a steady progress toward their practical implementation is being accomplished.
