We have previously documented for you the work of Nobel Laureate George Olah, at the University of Southern California's Loker Institute, on the recycling, the profitable conversion, into useful hydrocarbons, of Carbon Dioxide.
Somewhat surprisingly, USC, and Dr. Olah and some of his colleagues, have also been involved in the development of technology to convert our abundant coal into the liquid fuels we need, as the enclosed documents attest.
Like much about the very real processes which exist for converting coal into liquid fuels, this USC work is not well-published, even though Dr. Olah won the Nobel Prize, in 1994, for his innovative work in hydrocarbon chemistry. The public reports of USC's work which do exist, like those documenting the FMC company's liquefaction of coal in New Jersey for the USDOE, are sparse and incomplete; and, they provide only an outline, at best, of what had to have been a much more detailed and more extensive body of knowledge that was generated.
In any case, we present below some very brief passages excerpted from the quite complex presentation of coal liquefaction chemistries studied by USC, as linked above, with a link to one of Dr. Olah's coal liquefaction reports, accompanied by a brief excerpt, following. Comment inserted and appended:
"PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF COAL LIQUEFACTION PRODUCTS
I. Schwager and T. F. Yen
University of Southern California
Chemical Engineering Department
University Park
Los Angeles. California 90007
University of Southern California
Chemical Engineering Department
University Park
Los Angeles. California 90007
INTRODUCTION
The three direct general processes for converting coals to liquid fuels are: catalyzed hydrogenation, staged pyrolysis, and solvent refining. Each of these processes results in the production of a coal liquid which contains a variety of desirable and undesirable components. The desirable coal liquids are the oils-saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons plus nonpolar nonhydrocarbons, and the non-hydrocarbons. The undesirable species are the asphaltenes and the carbenes-high molecular weight highly aromatic solids, and the carboids-polymerized coke-like materials. The undesirable elements: metals, sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen are generally present in higher concentration in the asphaltene and carboid fractions. Under hydrogenolysis conditions, the conversion of coal to oil has been suggested to proceed via the following sequence: Coal-Asphaltene-Oil. Therefore, asphaltene generation and elimination are of great importance in the liquefaction process. A study of the chemical and physical properties of asphaltenes may lead to the discovery of ways to reduce or eliminate asphaltene build-up in coal liquids and to thereby increase the yields of desirable coal liquefaction products, In this work, coal liquids from representative liquefaction processes have been separated by solvent fractionation, and the fractions are being examined by various analytical and physical techniques. Particular attention is being directed toward asphaltene separation, purification and characterization.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A solvent fractionation scheme for separating coal liquid products into five fractions (oil, resin, asphaltene, carbene, and carboid) is shown. Representative coal liquid samples produced via the three direct coal liquefaction processes were separated into the five fractions described above. For the catalyzed hydrogenation product produced in the Synthoil process, the product composition is about 61% oil, 22% resin, 13%asphaltene, 0.6% carbene, and 3%carboid. The staged pyrolysis filtered product' from the FMC Corporation's COED process has a product composition of about 26% oil, 48% resin, 15% asphaltene, 1%carbene and lack carboid. The solvent refined coal (SRC) produced by Catalytic Inc. based on PAMCO's SRC process affords about 4% oil, 15% resin, 45% asphaltene, 2%carbene, and 9%carboid. The results found in this work are in good agreement with those reported recently for solvent fractionation of a Synthoil catalytic hydrogenation product, and a non-catalytic SRC product.
SUMMARY
A preliminary examination of coal liquefaction products from four different coal liquefaction processes has been carried out. Each coal liquid has been separated into five different fractions by solvent fractionation. It may be seen that heteroatoms and metals are generally concentrated in the asphaltene and carboid fractions."
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First, above, the "heteroatoms" would be Sulfur, and related contaminants. Moreover, the abstract begs reading of the complete work, if all the copies haven't been stuffed down a depleted oil well somewhere, to gain a clearer understanding of the results and their implications. Perhaps the important point to be taken from this is that, yes, coal can be liquefied into products suitable for refining. And, they know that even in Southern California, if not in Appalachia.
Following is the report of additional research into coal liquefaction undertaken by USC's George Olah:
"Title: Superacid catalyzed coal conversion chemistry. Final technical report, Sept. 1, 1983-Sept.1, 1986.
Author: Olah, G.A.
Publication Date: January 1, 1986
Report Number: DOE/PC/60810-T10; DOE Contract Number: FG22-83PC60810
Research Organization: Univ. of Southern Calif., Los Angeles (USA). Loker Hydrocarbon Research Inst.
Abstract:
This research project involved the study of a raw comparatively mild coal conversion process. The goal of the project was to study model systems to understand the basic chemistry involved and to provide a possible effective pretreatment of coal which significantly improves liquefaction-depolymerization under mild conditions. The conversion process operates at relatively low temperatues (170/sup 0/C) and pressures and uses an easily recyclable, stable superacid catalysts (HF-BF/sub 3/). It consequently offers an attractive alternative to currently available processes. From the present studies it appears that the modification of coal structure by electrophilic alkylation and subsequent reaction of alkylated coal with HF-BF/sub 3/-H/sub 2/ system under mild conditions considerably improves the extractability of coal in pyridine and cyclohexane. On the other hand, nitration of coal and its subsequent reaction with HF-BF/sub 3/H/sub 2/ decreases the pyridine and cyclohexane extractability. Study of model compounds under conditions identical with the superacidic HF/BF/sub 3//H/sub 2/ system provided significant information about the basic chemistry of the involved cleavage-hydrogenation reactions."
Note that Olah's reportage was of coal research done, for at least three years, under contract to our own, US, Department of Energy.
And, as in other coal conversion research undertaken by our US DOE, as we've reported, Olah was studying "mild" coal conversion processes; a term which we take to imply lower energy requirements, and thus lower costs, to effect the transmutation.
Odd, isn't it, that our Federal DOE would contract with the University of Southern California to study the conversion of coal into liquid fuels? It's like the US Department of Transportation contracting with WVU to study the molding of beach sand into surf boards.
In any case, the work is detailed, and the full reportage of it is beyond the scope of our purpose here, which is to document the fact, that: Multiple technologies exist, including the FMC, SRC and Synthoil processes named by Schwager and Yen, and about which we have previously reported, which, if coupled with the Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies we have documented for you, including some elaborated in other work by USC's George Olah, could enable the United States to end her reliance on foreign petroleum, thereby ushering in an era of domestic economic abundance, and improving the environment while doing so.
What we have so far been unable to document is any good reason why all of that isn't already being done on a broad-based industrial scale.