Energy Citations Database (ECD) - - Document #720674
We have documented the WWII, and more contemporary, work performed by the Axis powers on converting coal into liquid fuels.
Herein is more information on the CTL work that has been performed in Italy. Like much about coal conversion scientific development which has been conducted among the Western powers, however, the Italian effort seems to have winked out, tellingly from our perspective, sometime in the late Eighties or early Nineties.
In any case, they were at work on some, perhaps, innovative techniques that might have involved direct reduction, of water and CO2, chemistry to generate active H and CO ions for coal conversion reactions, in addition to the use of the hydrogen-donor coal solvent, tetralin, which, we believe, according to other published reports, is integral to WVU's "West Virginia Process" for coal liquefaction.
The excerpt:
"New CO/water conversion of coal; Topical report, January 1, 1986--December 31, 1988
Del Bianco, A., Girardi, E.[Eniricerche SpA, Milan (Italy)]
1988 Dec 31
DOE/FE/60925--T2
Ministero dell`Industria, Milan (Italy)
The primary objective of this research was to study the chemistry of coal liquefaction in carbon monoxide-water system in order to develop more efficient routes of coal hydrogenation. Work was accomplished under two Tasks aimed to optimize the yields of coal conversion as a function of the operating variables (Task 1) and to evaluate the quality of the coal-liquids in comparison with similar products from more conventional donor-solvent liquefaction processes (Task 2). Under Task 1, a set of four medium and low rank coals were converted under CO-steam conditions and the effect of changing the operating variables and nature of the catalysts were examined to understand the chemistry of this reaction more fully. These studies confirmed that a water-gas-shift reaction (WGSR) intermediate is the reducing species of the system and that a good matching between the reactions of WGSR-intermediate generation and thermal coal activation is essential to yield high coal conversions. The potential of temperature-staged liquefaction as well as the use of multicomponent catalytic systems were investigated. After establishing the optimum reaction conditions, comparative tests of coal liquefaction with tetralin/H2 were performed (Task 2). Results showed that the CO/water system gives coal conversion yields which are comparable, if not superior, to that obtained with the donor-solvent. 27 refs., 26 figs., 10 tabs"
Now, it would be nice to have access to those 27 references, figures and etc., wouldn't it? Since this citation is found in our own, US, Department of Energy's database, it should be available, in it's entirety, along with it's referenced works, and all the other coal-to-liquid fuel conversion references we've posted, shouldn't it?
