Energy Citations Database (ECD) - - Document #5733165
New Mexico, with some appreciable Coal reserves, was, apparently, more than a quarter-century ago, prescient enough to look into how they might use those reserves to help supply their liquid fuel needs.
And, they were thorough enough to examine a number of different Coal conversion processes, including, significantly, we think, the Union Carbide process, which, as we have documented, was reduced for a time to industrial practice near Charleston, WV, and was patented by Union Carbide scientists resident and working in West Virginia.
That Union Carbide technology, as you will see in the excerpts from the link above, is the one these thorough New Mexico researchers recommended:
"Title: Comparative evaluation of coal conversion technologies. Final report, December 7, 1982-July 6, 1983. [Davy McKee (COCHAR), Exxon (Exxon Donor Solvent), Lurgi process, Occidental Research Corporation (Flash Pyrolysis), Tosco (TOSCOAL), Union Carbide (Hydrocarbonization)
Author: C.W. Robinson
Date: September, 1983
Research Organization: Energy Transition Corp., Santa Fe, NM
Report ID: OSTI 5733165; USDOE Legacy Archive: DE84900021; Report Number: NMERDI-2-71-4607
Abstract: A comparative evaluation was made of six coal pyrolysis processes developed by the following companies: Davy McKee (COCHAR), Exxon (Exxon Donor Solvent), Lurgi (Lurgi Ruhrgas), Occidental Research Corporation (Flash Pyrolysis), Tosco (TOSCOAL), Union Carbide (Hydrocarbonization). This study serves as the necessary first step to the development of a major coal pyrolysis plant based on San Juan Basin coal. The process evaluation led to the recommendation that a more detailed study be made of the integration of the Union Carbide Hydrocarbonization process with an existing coal-fired electric utility plant in the Four Corners. The study included investigations of a char/coal liquids slurry movement to Texas or California, of the hydrotreating of coal liquids produced by the Hydrocarbonization process, and of the cleaning of San Juan Basin coal by electrostatic separation. Estimates of the capital and operating costs of a Hydrocarbonization plant located adjacent to the Four Corners Power Plant were prepared. A forecast was made of the economic benefits to the state of New Mexico and the number of jobs which would be created by the construction of a hydrocarbonization plant. A work plan was created to guide the project through the next stage of development. 267 Pages."
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We are, of course, forced to conclude that the "next stage", after publication of this independent study confirming the validity of a WV-based Coal-to-liquid conversion technology, never got off the ground.
Why was the launch aborted?
Someone, for the sake of our vital Coal industries, for the sake and economic well-being of all the people of West Virginia, of US Coal Country, of all the United States of America, needs to get the answer to that question. And, the problem behind the answer then needs to be corrected.