We earlier told you of several patented technologies, wherein the patents were assigned, variously, to the United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, and to defense contractor Grumman Aerospace, for the recycling of Carbon Dioxide, as arises from our coal-use industries, into liquid fuels.
Those patents are:
1. Process and System for producing synthetic liquid hydrocarbon fuels, Patent: US7420004;
2. Synfuel Production Ship, Patent: US4568522; and,
3. Production of synthetic hydrocarbons from air, water and low cost electrical power, Patent US4282187.
Herein, we introduce you to yet another technology held proprietary by the United States, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy; another technology that should be of great interest to all those of us who call, or want to call, land-locked West Virginia "Home".
We do make this submission with some caution, as we explain, following the Abstract:
"Coal liquefaction
United States Patent 4176040
Abstract:
A method for converting coal to liquid hydrocarbons or oil-soluble solids comprises the steps of contacting said coal with oxygen for at least 15 minutes, at a temperature from about 90° to about 225° C., heating the oxidized coal to a temperature from about 250° to about 450° C., and maintaining the temperature for at least 15 minutes.
Inventors:
Hazlett, Robert N. (Alexandria, VA)
Application Number:
05/903464
Publication Date:
11/27/1979
Filing Date:
05/08/1978
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy (Washington, DC)"
Regarding our note above, about caution: We point out that the Abstract's process description must, in some way, be incomplete. Simply "contacting ... coal with oxygen", for any amount of time, at any temperature, will not produce hydrocarbons; just, one would think, oxides of carbon.
However, the Patent Abstract, as reproduced above, is accurate according to multiple sources. There is something more to the process than is indicated.
And, "Robert N. Hazlett", of Alexandria, VA, is not, we have discovered, an inventor. He is, though, a patent attorney, as listed in several directories, and we thus presume he is acting solely on behalf of the United States Government.
The date of this patent is of interest. Another coal-to-liquid and synthetic fuel production technology that, for nearly three decades, could have helped our nation, and thus many of our US citizens, avoid impoverishment through enforced tithing to OPEC powers and through waging costly, overseas, oil-producing region conflicts, has been held proprietary, and thus gone unused, by the US Government department, the DOD, and her key contractors, whose primary purpose for existence should be to guard and promote our secure prosperity.
Throughout our American history, many technical innovations developed by and for our military have been passed along, with great benefit, to the public industries, and thus the private citizens, of the United States.
It's way past time that tradition was applied to the technologies our military has developed for converting coal into liquid fuels, and to those for recycling Carbon Dioxide.