Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information - Sponsored by OSTI
Over a period of years in the 1990's, West Virginia University developed technologies for "The Economical Production of Alcohol Fuels from Coal-Derived Synthesis Gas", for the United States Department of Energy, under Contract Number DE-AC22-91PC91034.
The Final Report, linked both above and immediately below, is far too large for us, with our limited technical capacities, to download and manage.
And, a caution: There seem to be two versions of the final report available; or, there is some discrepancy in the USDOE's catalog system. Separate searches have led us to two different file listings. The other bills itself as being "6Mb" in size.
However, we have been able to locate and download a briefer "Technical Progress Report" on this project, which we include as both a link and an attached document, with excerpts, below. The identification particulars contained within it should, if you are interested, enable you to connect with the proper Final Report in the DOE archives; all of that, again, presuming you to have genuine interest in the fact that West Virginia University, more than a decade ago, developed technology for "The Economical Production of Alcohol Fuels from Coal", and, not only are we, all of us in the United States, still struggling in economic bondage to Big Oil and OPEC, none of us regular folk living in US Coal Country has been deemed worthy to be told anything about any of it.
The Final Report of WVU's "Economical Production of Alcohol Fuels from Coal-Derived Synthesis Gas":
View Document 5 Mb
As noted, we have been able to download a quarterly report from this project, and it is included via the two links following, and the attached file.
Excerpts and comments are appended:
Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information - Sponsored by OSTI
View Document 33 K
"QUARTERLY TECHNICAL PROGRESS REPORT; NUMBER 23
(Note that there are at least 23 reported quarters in this project. No wonder the "Final" is so long.)
THE ECONOMICAL PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL FUELS FROM COAL-DERIVED SYNTHESIS GAS
CONTRACT NO. DE-AC22-91PC91034
REPORTING PERIOD: April 1, 1997 to June 30, 1997
SUBMITTED TO:
Document Control Center
U.S. Department of Energy
Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center
P.O. Box 10940, MS 921-118
Pittsburgh, PA 15236-0940
SUBMITTED BY:
West Virginia University Research Corporation
on behalf of West Virginia University
617 N. Spruce Street
Morgantown, WV 26506
June, 1997; Revised February 1998
U.S. DOE Patent Clearance is not required prior to the publication of this document.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary..........................................................3
1.1 Introduction.............................................................4
1.2 Accomplishments, Results and Discussion ......................................4
1.2.1Laboratory Setup .................................................4
1.2.2 Molybdenum-Based Catalyst Research .................................4
1.3 Conclusions and Recommendations ..........................................10
1.4 Future Plans............................................................10
Executive Summary
During this time period, we finished the kinetic study on the reduced Mo-Ni-K/C catalyst. Experimental work on this project is essentially over. We are continuing the development of kinetic models for this catalyst. We are also continuing with the quantitative analyses of TPR spectra from K-Mo/C catalysts. We request a meeting with USDOE to consider plans to follow up the current work.
Introduction
The objective of Task 1 is to prepare and evaluate catalysts and to develop efficient reactor systems for the selective conversion of hydrogen-lean synthesis gas to alcohol fuel extenders and octane enhancers.
Molybdenum-Based Catalyst Research
We have finished the kinetic study on the reduced Mo-Ni-K/C catalyst. The experimental data were obtained on a tubular fixed-bed microreactor. These data have been reported in Technical Progress Report (TPR) 22.
The exponential models for methanol (MeOH) and ethanol (EtOH) have been reported in TPR 22.
(Need we remind anyone, at this point, that, as we have more than thoroughly documented, both Methanol and Ethanol can be converted into Gasoline, as well as into plastics and other organic chemical manufacturing raw materials?)
We are continuing to analyze quantitatively the spectra from temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) of
K- and Ni-doped C-supported Mo-based catalysts. During the period of this report, we have studied the effects of impregnation sequence and of calcination for Ni-doped C-supported Mo catalysts. Results with the K-doped catalysts have been reported earlier (Technical Progress Report 22).
We consider the experimental work on this project to be essentially finished. During this time period, several presentations were made and several manuscripts were written. A paper entitled “Formation of C -C Alcohols from Synthesis Gas over Doped Supported Molybdenum Sulfide Catalysts” was presented at the Spring Symposium of the Tri-State Catalyst Club (TSCC) in Charleston, WV on April 8-9, 1997. A preliminary poster paper on early kinetic results, entitled “Higher-Alcohol Synthesis over Reduced Mo-Ni-K/C Catalysts: A Kinetic Study,” and a preliminary poster paper on early TPR results, entitled “A TPR Study of Carbon-Supported Mo-based Catalysts,” were also presented at the TSCC Meeting. A paper entitled “Kinetics of Higher-Alcohol Formation from Synthesis Gas using Statistically Designed Experiments” was presented at the 213th Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in San Francisco on April 16, 1997. Two presentations were made during the 15th Meeting of the North American Catalysis Society in Chicago IL, May 18-22, 1997. One was an oral paper entitled “Kinetics of Higher-Alcohol Formation from Synthesis Gas using Statistically Designed Experiments in a Gradientless Reactor,” and the other was a poster paper entitled “Screening of Catalysts Based on Vapor-Phase Synthesized Molybdenum Sulfide for Higher-Alcohol Synthesis.” We were requested to submit a manuscript for inclusion in the Special Edition of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research honoring Gilbert F. Froment; this paper, entitled “Screening of Alkali-Promoted Vapor-Phase-Synthesized Molybdenum Sulfide Catalysts for the Production of Alcohols from Synthesis Gas,” is currently in press. A second manuscript, entitled, “A Kinetic Model for the Synthesis of High-Molecular-Weight Alcohols over a Sulfided Co-K-Mo/C Catalyst” is currently under review. Two more manuscripts are currently under preparation.
(Copies of all of those reports and presentations should have been mailed to every taxpayer in US Coal Country.)
Conclusions and Recommendations
The kinetic analysis for the data over the Mo-Ni-K/C catalyst has been completed. TPR experiments on alkali-substituted Mo/C are complete. The experimental work for this project is essentially complete. The TPR data for the Ni-Mo/C are starting to be analyzed. We believe that the Mo-Ni-K/C catalyst, and the earlier-reported Co-Mo-K/C catalysts are promising catalysts for the synthesis of higher alcohols.
(The "synthesis of higher alcohols", we remind you, from Coal.)
Future Plans
We request a meeting with USDOE to go over alternatives for research to follow up on some of our promising results."
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West Virginia University developed "promising" technology to make alcohol fuels, from Coal, for the United States Department of Energy. The technology to accomplish that has been around for a long time, but WVU made it better.
When will it be good enough?
Haven't the dramatic increases in the price of petroleum over the last decade made the technology even more economically attractive than it likely was to begin with?
And, when will we start to hear about all of this in the WV, and in the rest of the US Coal Country, press?