WV Coal Member Meeting 2024 1240x200 1 1

US Guv Owns CoalTL Patent Rights

 
Herein is yet another United States Patent documenting that Coal can, in a practical way, be converted into liquid fuels.
 
Our excerpt will be relatively brief, with some comment, and a brief additional excerpt, appended.
 
As follows:
 
"United States Patent 4,917,791: "Process and catalysts for hydroconversion of coal or petroleum asphaltene to distillate liquid. April 17, 1990.
 
Abstract: A two-stage catalytic hydroconversion process using a large-pore catalyst in the first stage reactor and a small-pore catalyst in the second stage reactor in the two-stage process for hydroconversion of coal or petroleum asphaltene feed materials to produce distillate liquid fuels. The large-pore catalyst is characterized by having pore diameters larger than 1000.ANG. occupying a major portion of the catalyst total pore volume of 0.2 to 1.0 cc/gm, and the small-pore catalyst is characterized by having pore diameters smaller than 1000.ANG. occupying a major portion of the catalyst total pore volume.
 
Claims: What is claimed is:

1. A two-stage catalytic process for hydroconversion of coal to produce hydrocarbon liquid products and fuel gas, which comprises:

- passing a preheated feed material containing solid coal particles and dissolved coal with hydrogen through a first stage catalytic reactor containing a large-pore catalyst and converting the coal to preasphaltene, coal asphaltene, distillate liquid and gas effluent material over the catalyst, said catalyst having macropores larger than 1000A occupying a major portion of the total pore volume;

- passing the first-stage reactor effluent containing mainly preasphaltene, coal asphaltene and distillate through a second stage catalytic reactor containing a small-pore catalyst, and converting the preasphaltene and coal asphaltene to effluent material containing lower-boiling distillate liquid, said small pore catalyst having pores smaller than 1000A occupying a major portion of the catalyst total pore volume; and

- separating the second stage reactor effluent material into hydrocarbon gaseous and liquid products and a solids-containing insoluble material, and withdrawing a hydrocarbon liquid product from the process.
 
Inventor: Kang; Chia-chen Chu; Princeton, NJ."
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There is no indication of the Inventor's affiliation. However, we have noted, in many of our earlier reports on Coal liquefaction technology, that a certain amount of commercial and academic development in CoalTL did take place in New Jersey, during the latter decades of the prior century.
 
Aside from being further official documentation that Coal can be converted into liquid fuels, and that such technology is, in certain circles well-known and well-understood, one thing that interests us most about this patent is the following statement contained within it:
 
"Government Interests: The United States government has patent rights therein for hydroconversion of coal."
 
As we would understand that statement, not only does our US Government know that Coal can be converted into liquid fuels on a practical basis, they own at least one of the technologies to do so. 
 
For two decades, our own government has held, unused, the means by which we could have been freed from overseas oil enslavement, and spared the concomitant decay of our domestic economy.
 
No further comment from us could do justice to characterization of that injustice.