We has gassification plants in the U.S. during WWII...

Several (WWII) war plants in Pennsylvania were built with coal-gassification facilities for alternative power because of the nearby abundance of anthracite coal. The former Alcoa plant near Pottsville PA is one such plant with a coal gassification plant on its grounds that has pretty much sat idle and crumbling away since the 40's. (The gassification building is now unusable and has been slowly stripped out for repair parts for the rest of the facility over the last 30 years)

Coal gassification was very expensive, but like most other war projects during that period money was no object compared to a shutdown due to a fuel shortage. The process in the 1940's was centered on converting coal into a gaseous fuel to run the furnaces throughout the plant, the newer process adds a few steps to turn the gas into a liquid fuel.

Current plans are in the works to transform literal mountains of waste anthracite coal (culm) into the feeder stock for modern plants. Basically, turning something useless that coal companies can't pay to get rid of into liquid fuel without affecting current coal production.

sorry, I finally had something to contribute