We have told you Ashland Oil's participation in the "H-Coal" synthetic fuel operations in Kentucky, and of their apparent subversion of that pilot plant to, ultimately, supply Hydrogen to one of their subsidiary petroleum refiners.
We have also delivered some rather technical information concerning accounts of corrosion problems encountered in coal-to-liquid conversion plants.
As it happens, Ashland was at least thorough enough to document that same problem in the H-Coal facility, as in the attached article, excerpt following.
Our supposition is that Sasol long ago surmounted all these difficulties, and only await being asked to help us solve them ourselves - if, indeed, we actually do want them solved, so that we can proceed on a sensible path towards a United States liquid fuel self-sufficiency based on coal.
All the evidence we have uncovered so far strongly indicates that we, or at least some powerful influencers in the shadows around us, don't want it, else we would, like South Africa, have long ago had it.
As follows:
"H-Coal Pilot Plant: University of Kentucky Institute for Mining and Minerals Research - findings from the corrosion-monitoring program at the H-Coal Pilot Plant
1983 May 01
Ashland Synthetic Fuels, Inc., KY (USA)
One objective of the H-Coal Pilot Plant was to evaluate materials of construction and establish guidelines for materials for commercial application. In order to meet that objective, a Corrosion Monitoring Program was begun in May 1980. The University of Kentucky Institute for Mining and Minerals Research (IMMR), under ASFI Subcontract HC-59, prepared corrosion coupons for exposure in various areas of the H-Coal process, primarily in the high pressure hydrogenation section, but also including the atmospheric fractionator and sour water and sour gas areas. A total of 33 racks consisting of combinations of 32 different alloys were exposed during four different exposure periods (approximately 200 coupons per exposure period) from May 1980 to November 1982. The coupons were exposd to four different types of coal: Kentucky No. 11, Illinois No. 6, Kentucky No. 9, and Wyodak coal separately and/or in various combinations. To extract as much data as possible, the coupons were examined by various techniques including weight loss determination, metallographic examination and microanalytical examination. The original data, results of the various examinations, trend analysis, discussion of meaningful correlations, and conclusions are presented in this report."
Once again,very detailed stuff about a technology that, in the United States, at least, officially doesn't seem to exist.