Book excerpt: Within the context of Canada's future energy demand and declining conventional crude oil production, this report examines recent advances in coal liquids technology and assesses the potential role of coal-derived synthetic fuels in the evolving energy technology mix. The model used in this study allocates, on an optimal basis, all the relevant Canadian energy resources - conventional and frontier crude oil, natural gas, bitumen, and coal - among the potentially available technologies and also over time. The supply cost analysis, production and on-stream development scenarios presented for upgraders, mined oil sands plants and coal liquids facilities are based on a complete re-assessment of the potential costs of all of the major energy supply options, measured against a re-evaluation of the Institute's CREED model and a linear programming model developed by the Alberta Research Council. A detailed evaluation, undertaken by the MITRE Corp. in the U.S., of recent advances in direct coal liquefaction together with a study published by the Electric Power Research Institute on coal/oil co-processing, formed the basis of the state-of-the-art coal liquids technology.