We can include no links in this dispatch, but, somewhere in our GUV's archives, there should exist a full copy of the paper represented by the following abstract, which we believe to be a true and valid reproduction:"BATCHELDER, H. R., DRESSLER, R. G., TENNEY, R. F., SKINNER, L. C., AND HIRST, L. L. Role of Oxygen in the production of Synthetic Liquid Fuels From Coal. Bureau of Mines Rept. of Investigations 4775, 1951, 15 pp.Steps in the production of O2 by the liquefaction and fractionation of air are discussed. All commercial designs involve the following basic steps: (1) Supply of air into the plant apparatus; (2) refrigeration of the apparatus; (3) heat transfer between ingoing air and outgoing products; (4) removal of impurities from the air supply; (5) fractionation of liquefied air into components N2 and O2 and delivery of both as product gases; (6) removal of C2H2. Characteristics of 4 commercial-size plants in this country for the production of O2 are presented, and the type and size of 4 other plants under construction are listed. The relationship of O2-plant size to plant cost and to O2 cost is discussed. Increases in O2 cost are quite rapid as the size of the plant is reduced: $7.00 for a 100-ton plant; $4.80 for 300 tons; and $3.50 for 1,000 tons. The function of O2 in the production of synthetic liquid fuels is primarily the gasification of coal with O2 to produce mixtures of CO+H2, which then may be used directly, in the case of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, or as a source of H2 for coal hydrogenation. Among the potential advantages of the substitution of O2 for air in the coal-gasification step are the following: (1) Fuel economy; (2) increased capacity of equipment; (3) wider range of possible fuels; (4) greater adaptability to pressure operation; and (5) higher range of attainable temperatures. The amount of O2 necessary to produce synthetic fuel by Fischer-Tropsch is about 690 lb. per bbl. of liquid fuel. This amount of O2 Each change of $1.00 per ton for O2 will change the cost per bbl. of synthetic fuel from this process by about $0.35. In the coal-hydrogenation process, a relatively large part of the required H2 is to be recovered from the tail gases by low-temperature separation and produced by reforming the product CH4 with steam. Thus, the O2 requirement for coal gasification is only a fraction of that for Fischer-Tropsch. About 90 lb. of O2 will be required to make 1 bbl. of synthetic fuel by coal hydrogenation. At $5.00 per ton, the O2 cost would amount to about $0.22 per bbl. of oil and at $3.00 to about $0.14. Each change of $1.00 per bbl. in O2 cost will change the cost per bbl. by about $0.04." at $5.00 per ton would amount to $1.72 per bbl. and at $3.00 to $1.03.
We're sending this along to you because it seems a very detailed, very specific cost analysis of one specific component of industrial coal-to-liquid processes, both Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and direct hydrogenation, which are named in the abstract as if they were established and well-known industrial practices. The costs won't be the same nowadays - things have changed since the year you were born, haven't they, Mike? - but the price of oil has gone up a tad, too, hasn't it? We're willing to bet the price proportions, relative to a barrel of oil, are likely to be even more favorable, now.
Note, again, the detail - and this analysis, for the most part, only involves the Oxygen supply, down to a brief census of oxygen producers. And, they only studied the O2 supply since it enables production efficiencies and increased product ranges relative to plain old, freely available, air. But, they also discuss where the Hydrogen for actually transforming coal into a liquid hydrocarbon will come from: CH4 - methane - is produced by the gasification process, apparently, thus exits in the tail gas and can be "reformed", broken down, with steam, with H2 as a product in volumes that will fulfil most of the process requirements; otherwise, it seems, H2 can be derived from the synthesis gas itself.
Explicit, useful data on the science of converting coal into liquid fuel in the US. From 1951.
More proof that we've know how to fulfill our liquid fuel needs, with domestic coal, for many decades. There have to be reasons we haven't been, and are not yet, doing just that; but they cannot, we insist, be good reasons.
