In a very recent dispatch, concerning the Synthane Coal conversion process developed by US Government scientists working in Pittsburgh, PA, we noted, as we have previously documented from other reputable sources, as in our post of March 10, 2010, "Mobil Liquefies CoalTL Residue", concerning Mobil's US Patent for converting carbonaceous residues left behind by their primary Coal conversion process, that such residues can be further processed to yield even more commercially valuable hydrocarbons.
Our own United States Government itself developed the technology to do just that, in it's Pittsburgh, PA, Bureau of Mines Coal Research Laboratory, in the late 1940's, as this United States Patent attests.
Comment follows our brief excerpts from the enclosed link and attached document:
"United States Patent 2,634,286 - Production of Hydrocarbon Synthesis Gas from Coal
April 7, 1953
Inventors: Martin Elliott, et. al., assignors
Assignee: United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Interior
Abstract: This invention relates to the production of synthesis gas and more particularly to the production of a low-sulfur content mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen by gasifying the finely-divided low-sulfur content char obtained as a byproduct of the direct hydrogenation of coal ... ."
----------
Yes, some primary processes of Coal conversion do leave behind a carbonaceous residue, a "char". That residue can be gasified, as herein, into "carbon monoxide and hydrogen", "Synthesis Gas", as in the Patent's title, which can then, as we have many times described and documented, be passed over a suitable Fischer-Tropsch, or related, catalyst and condensed into liquid hydrocarbons.
Again, We the People, "as represented by the Secretary of the Interior", own this technology, and have owned it for more than half a century. Why aren't We using it to the benefit of the People, the people of the United States of America?