In a very recent dispatch, we reported on a United States coal-to-liquid conversion technology Patent that had been awarded to ARCO, concurrent with their involvement in the Federally-sponsored "COED" process coal conversion pilot plant in Princeton, New Jersey; operated under subcontract by FMC Corporation.
Brief specifics of that patent are: Synthetic crude oil from coal; 1970; Patent 3503867; Assignee: Atlantic Richfield.
As we have also been reporting, Consol researchers were, separately, near the end of the FMC COED project, working on their own coal liquefaction technology, the Zinc Chloride, or Zinc Halide, Coal Liquefaction Process, also with US Government support, under USDOE Contract EX-76-C-01-1743.
That tax-supported research and development also led to a somewhat obscure, dare we say camouflaged, US coal-to-liquid conversion technology Patent, now owned and unused by Consol's Big Oil parent, Continental Oil Company, aka Conoco.
Read carefully the following excerpts from the enclosed link:
"Regeneration of zinc halide catalyst used in the hydrocracking of polynuclear hydrocarbons
United States Patent 4081400
Improved recovery of spent molten zinc halide hydro-cracking catalyst is achieved in the oxidative vapor phase regeneration thereof by selective treatment of the zinc oxide carried over by the effluent vapors from the regeneration zone with hydrogen halide gas under conditions favoring the reaction of the zinc oxide with the hydrogen halide, whereby regenerated zinc halide is recovered in a solids-free state with little loss of zinc values.
Inventor: Gorin, Everett (San Rafael, CA); Date: 03/28/1978; Assignee: Continental Oil Company
Claims:
1. A process for regenerating spent molten zinc chloride which has been used in the hydrocracking of coal or ash-containing polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbonaceous materials derived therefrom and which contains zinc chloride, zinc oxide, zinc oxide complexes and ash-containing carbonaceous residue, comprising in combination, the following steps:
(For brevity, we omit technical details herein. They are available through the link.)
2. A process for regenerating spent molten zinc halide which has been used in the hydrocracking of coal or ash-containing polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbonaceous materials derived therefrom and which contains, in addition to zinc halide, zinc sulfide, organic residue and ash, comprising in combination, the following steps:
This invention relates to the regeneration of molten zinc halide catalysts used in hydrocracking predominantly polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbonaceous materials; and, more particularly, in the conversion to gasoline of substantially non-distillable, high molecular weight, predominantly polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbonaceous feedstocks which contain nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur compounds. Examples of such feedstocks are coaly solids and pyrolytic products derived from coal solids such as coal extracts.
... spent zinc chloride melt resulting from the hydrocracking of coal or coal derived products contains in addition to zinc chloride carbonaceous residue ... ."
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Those, we think, should be sufficient enough "coal extracts" for you to get the picture:
United States taxpayers financed the development of a technology, now owned and unused by Big Oil's Conoco, that could long ago have helped to free those same US taxpayers from crippling, debilitating economic bondage to foreign petroleum powers.
As this patent clearly indicates, the science of coal conversion is, in certain closed circles, highly developed and quite sophisticated. Note that this is not a patent on technology to liquefy coal. The existence of that technology is implied herein; it is a given. This, is a patent on technology to make one specific process for the liquefaction of coal more efficient and more profitable, by recycling a catalyst used in that process.
As in other of our dispatches, further comment from us seems unneeded. The facts, with their obvious implications, speak for themselves.