United States Patent: 4158637
The old Westinghouse Electric Corporation, once headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, has, in the past few decades, gone through so many transformations, with bits and pieces of it being sold and traded to other companies such as Eaton, CBS and Northrop Grumman, that we can't even attempt an explanation.
However, prior to their dissolution, some of their scientists applied themselves to the technology of converting Coal into more versatile hydrocarbon compounds.
Comment follows our excerpt from the above link to:
"United States Patent 4,158, 637: Conversion of Coal into Hydrocarbons
Inventor: Jones, Andrew - Murrysville, PA; Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, PA
Date: June 19, 1979
Abstract: Hydrocarbons are formed of coal and water. The water is converted or dissociated separately into hydrogen and oxygen in a first chemical reactor by thermochemical and/or electrolytic processing. The resulting hydrogen is then reacted with the coal in a second reactor to produce the hydrocarbons. Residual carbon from the second reactor is reacted in a third reactor with oxygen derived from the first reactor to produce carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide is reacted with residual hydrogen from the second reactor or hydrogen from the first reactor to produce additional hydrocarbons. The energy for the endothermic and/or electrolytic processing in the reactors and for auxiliary equipment of the apparatus is supplied by a very high-temperature, gas-cooled, nuclear reactor by heat interchange with the cooling gas, helium. The cooling gas operates through heat-exchange means which isolates the cooling gas from the processing apparatus.
Background: This invention relates to the conversion of coal into hydrocarbons, sometimes referred to as gasification or liquefaction of coal, and has particular relationship to such conversion by reactions involving principally coal and water.
A typical chemical reaction describing the conversion of coal and water into methane, in accordance with the teachings of the prior art, where the energy for the conversion is derived by burning coal."
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"Hydrocarbons are formed of coal and water." - Simple, straightforward, to the point. How, in the more than three decades since this technology was published, have we continued to miss that point?
We won't excerpt more from the full text of the Claims. However, as in several other, similar, technologies we've documented for you, Westinghouse highlights the facts that some energy is generated by some steps of the Coal conversion process itself, which can then be utilized to drive other steps in the process.
The energy investment is correspondingly reduced, although Westinghouse, aside from stating that "the energy for the conversion is derived by burning coal", also, unsurprisingly, based on their industrial enterprises, also suggests the use of nuclear power.
Nuts to that. We would prefer to just burn more coal, or use hydroelectric.
Moreover, the technology they explain herein utilizes some internal steps of by-product recycling which improves the efficiency, increases the amount of product, and leads to full conversion of the coal into hydrocarbons.
But, three decades ago, a major corporation, in one of the hearts of US Coal Country, published the details of a process that would efficiently convert our abundant Coal into increasingly scarce hydrocarbons.
And, no one yet, as far as we know, has put that process to work.
