In the 1920s, a German and Czech chemist, Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, respectively, developed the Fischer-Tropsch process in Germany. The process allowed the Germans to convert coal into synthesis gas, and with refinement, the synthetic fuel they needed to power their war machine.

The U.S. Department of Energy has a page on the history of the German's synthetic fuel program and the post war American experience.

According to a Business Week article by Neal Sandler, the Israeli process calls for the shale to be "...mixed and coated with bitumen, a remnant of normal oil refining, then put through a catalytic converter under relatively low pressure. The output is synthetic oil that can be refined into gasoline and other products."