The zinc chloride process for the hydrocracking of coal. F. E. Biasca. 2007; International Journal of Energy Research - Wiley.
We earlier reported on the Zinc Chloride Process of Coal Liquefaction - developed under a USDOE contract by coal scientists working for oil companies, and reported mainly in obscure, overseas foreign venues.
One report somehow slipped through their bars, and was delivered at the University of Pittsburgh, in 1979.
Brief comment follows the revealing excerpt:
"The Zinc Chloride Process for the Hydrocracking of Coal
F.E Biasca, C.R. Greene, W.E. Clark, R.T. Struck
Shell Development Company, Houston, TX 77001 USA
Conoco Coal Development Company, Library, PA 15129 USA
The substance of this paper was presented at the 6th Annual Conference on Coal Gasification, Liquefaction and Conversion to Electricity, University of Pittsburgh, 31 July-2 August, 1979
Funded by:
U.S. Department of Energy; Grant Number: DOE EX-76-C-01-1743
Abstract
The molten zinc chloride process is a unique hydrocracking system that converts coal to gasoline in a single step. an economically attractive process is currently under development at the one ton per day process development unit (PDU) scale. the design and economics of a plant to produce 53,000 bbl/day of gasoline with 90-92 unleaded research octane number from Western coal is discussed. the construction cost of the plant will be about 1.9 billion dollars (1979); the cost of manufacturing gasoline is about 76c/ gallon."
In 1979, a coal producer owned by a major petroleum company revealed, at a conference held by one of the founding members of, what was originally called, as we've elsewhere documented, The Consortium For Fossil Fuel Liquefaction Science, that gasoline could be made from coal - at a cost of 76 cents per gallon.
To repeat: Two oil companies - one of them through it's coal industry subsidiary - and the United States Department of Energy told us, thirty years ago, that we could make gasoline out of coal for 76 cents per gallon.