We're presuming the enclosed article is reporting the results of research conducted for the US Air Force as a part of their extensive coal-to-liquid development effort, which we have extensively documented for you, and, which might, or might not, be moving forward. News reports on that effort are, we'll assume deliberately, for whatever reason, somewhat contradictory and confusing.
In any case, this entry validates some of what we earlier reported to you: The art of converting coal into useful hydrocarbon liquids is so far advanced that considerable effort is being applied, very quietly applied, to improve the technologies for refining those coal liquids into direct replacements for the range of liquid fuels traditionally derived from petroleum.
It seems gratuitous to note, yet again, that SASOL has, according to extensive documentation, already done much of this work in South Africa, where they have been operating their vehicles, and refueling airliners from around the world at the Johannesburg Airport, for many decades, with liquid fuels made from coal.
Excerpt as follows:
"The catalytic hydrocracking of coal derived oils"
Berg, L.; Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana
In: Symposium on Alternate Fuel Resources, Santa Maria, Calif., March 25-27, 1976, Proceedings. (A76-47287 24-44) North Hollywood, Calif., Western Periodicals Co.; Vandenberg, Calif., American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 1976, p. 339-342.
Abstract:
Preliminary results are presented for a program designed to take the product from the most advanced coal liquefaction processes and convert it catalytically to a clean distillate fuel, where the term distillate is understood to mean anything that has been vaporized and recondensed leaving the nonvaporizable material behind. Chemical characteristics of coal are outlined in order to gain a better insight into the problems of making acceptable liquid fuels from coal. Advanced liquefaction processes are described which furnish the raw material for catalytic upgrading studies. Particular attention is given to the catalytic treatment of liquefied coals to further upgrade them. The reactors designed consist of a 1-in. steel tube inserted in an aluminum cylinder, where an electric winding around the aluminum cylinder provides heat. An analysis of candidate catalysts revealed that nickel-tungsten is a proper approach."
Once again, what we find most interesting about this report is that the emphasis seems to be on the upgrading of liquid fuels made from coal, as in:
"Advanced liquefaction processes are described which furnish the raw material for catalytic upgrading studies."
Implied, treated as a given, is that liquid fuels can, almost of course, be efficiently made from coal.
And, as in some of our earlier posts, we're compelled to make note the venue in which this information, about coal liquefaction, was presented: An Aeronautics and Astronautics Institute Symposium, held, one is led to conclude, at the Vandenberg AFB in California. Of course, the aeronautics connection is something of a tradition: As we've thoroughly, even tediously, documented, Germany kept her Luftwaffe airborne for years, during WWII, on liquid aviation fuels refined from coal.
We're still playing catch-up ball, sixty years later. And, South Africa has been way ahead of us all this time. China is pulling ahead.