We have thoroughly documented that a wide variety of liquid fuels, and commercially-valuable organic chemicals, can be directly and efficiently synthesized from coal. And, we are in the process of documenting for you that the Carbon Dioxide by-product of our coal-use industries can also be efficiently collected and recycled, into the same liquid fuels and valuable organic chemicals.
We have also documented that very useful, though somewhat intermediate products, methanol and dimethyl ether (DME), are generated from both coal and Carbon Dioxide conversion processes.
As we have reported, both methanol and DME are useful fuels in their own right, aside from being valuable precursors for plastics, and other, manufacture. We have also confirmed that commercial processes exist, such as ExxonMobil's MTG (r) technology, whereby methanol, once synthesized from coal, or CO2, can be further tweaked into the gasoline we all know and love.
Since, in future dispatches, we will be referencing additional technologies for producing both methanol and DME from both coal and CO2, we wanted to document, once again, that either of those coal conversion or carbon recycling liquid products can, indeed, be easily transformed into the gasoline we're all so desperate for.
Herein, from another of our domestic US institutions of higher learning, is confirmation of that fact:
Document title
Methanol-to-gasoline vs. DME-to-gasoline. II: Process comparison and analysisAuthors
SUNGGYU LEE ; GOGATE M. ; KULIK C. J. ;Affiliations
Univ. Akron, dep. chemical eng., process res. cent., Akron OH 44325-3906, ETATS-UNISAbstract
Methanol can be converted into gasoline boiling range hydrocarbons over zeolite ZSM-5 catalyst using the Mobil MTG process. Methanol feed in the MTG process can be derived from coal or natural gas based syngas. The Mobil MTG process involves the conversion steps of syngas-to-methanol and methanol-to-gasoline. Dimethyl Ether (DME), a product of methanol dehydrocondensation, is an intermediate species in the methanol-to-gasoline conversion. Syngas can be directly converted to DME using the Liquid Phase Dimethyl Ether Synthesis (LP-DME) process developed at the University of Akron in conjunction with Electric Power Research Institute. This direct one-step conversion of syngas-to-DME can then be an ideal front end for further conversion to gasoline. This substitution (syngas-to-methanol by syngas-to-DME) is justified because DME results in an identical hydrocarbon distribution over the ZSM-5 catalyst as methanol. The DME-to-Gasoline (DTG) process thus involves the conversion steps of syngas-to-DME and DME-to gasoline. The UA/EPRI DTG process offers advantages over the Mobil MTG process in several areas. These include heat duty and heat of reaction, adiabatic temperature rise, hydrocarbon product yield and selectivity, syngas conversion, and overall process efficiency. The conceptual benefits of the DTG process have been demonstrated experimentally in a fluidized bed reactor system operative at the University of Akron. The salient features of the DTG process and process comparison to the Mobil MTG process are discussed in this paper."Don't lose sight of the fact, in all the technical jargon, that "Methanol feed in the MTG process can be derived from coal", as can DME.
And, again, both methanol and DME can be converted into gasoline.