United States Patent: 4180456
In reporting the Coal conversion technology revealed by the United States patent enclosed herein, we must first remind you of the old Union Carbide Corporation's development and operation of a Coal liquefaction factory, as we documented in a number of our earlier reports, near Charleston, WV.
More information on Carbide's WV Coal conversion activities can be found in the West Virginia State Archives, Division of Culture and History's "Union Carbide Collection", as accessible via the following link:
Union Carbide Corporation Collection
Of specific interest in the Carbide Collection would be: "The Coal Hydrogenation Program and Related Coal Projects. Compiled and Edited by John J. Potter, Jr., October 1995."
Some years subsequent to that publication, in February of 2001, Union Carbide became a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.
We suggested in earlier reports, based on our documentation of Coal liquefaction developments undertaken independently, prior to their merger, by both Exxon and Mobil, that Coal conversion's commercial potential might have been a primary motivator for the creation of ExxonMobil.
It's also possible that advancement of Coal conversion science motivated the acquisition, by Dow, of Union Carbide.
Following, we present excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch, demonstrating that Dow had, prior to their assimilation of Union Carbide, already begun development of their own Coal conversion and liquefaction technology to produce raw materials for their chemical manufacturing activities, as substitutes for increasingly expensive, and threatened, supplies of oil-based petrochemical feed stocks.
And, as with some of our other submissions, we herein validate the existence of viable Coal-to-liquid technology, not by documenting how Coal is transformed into liquid hydrocarbons, but, by demonstrating that considerable effort has been applied, by very credible entities, in this case by Dow, into the further processing and refining of Coal-derived liquids, once they are produced by one of the multiple technologies available to effect Coal liquefaction.
Via the first enclosed link and following excerpt, we see that the industrial giant Dow Chemical had, by the time they acquired Union Carbide, already developed their own technology to extract "premium oil" from liquefied Coal.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"US Patent 4,180,456 - Process for Recovering Premium Oil from .. a Solid, Hydrocarbonaceous Fuel
December 25, 1979
Inventors: Norman Moll and George Quarderer (MI)
Assignee: The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI
Abstract: A feed slurry containing fine solids, polar liquids and premium liquid oil and produced by high temperature hydrogenation of a solid fuel, such as coal, is separated into a first fraction comprising the premium liquid oil and a second fraction comprising the fine solids and polar liquids by (a) contacting the feed slurry with a solvent, such as (1) C5 -C9 aliphatic hydrocarbon (2) C5 -C9 alicyclic hydrocarbon or (3) naphthenic or paraffinic fraction of a coal liquefaction product containing less than 10 wt. % aromatics at a temperature of 100 - 250 degree C. and pressure sufficient to maintain the feed slurry and solvent in the liquid state but less than 450 psi. The feed slurry is introduced at or near the top of a contacting zone of a vertical column, which also has an upper settling zone and a lower collection zone, and the solvent is introduced at or near the bottom of the contacting zone of said column at a solvent; slurry wt ratio of at least 0.5:1, or more specifically at a ratio between 0.6:1 and 5:1. The first fraction is recovered as an overflow from the settling zone and the second fraction as an underflow from the collection zone. The column wall defining the collection zone is maintained at a temperature at least 20.degree. C. above the temperature of that portion of the column wall defining the contacting zone, more specifically, the column wall defining the collection zone has a temperature of at least 150.degree. C.
Claims: An improved process for separating a feed slurry produced by high temperature hydrogenation of a solid hydrocarbonaceous fuel and comprising fine solids, polar liquids and premium liquid oil, into a first fraction comprising the premium liquid oil and a second fraction comprising the fine solids and polar liquids, the process comprising:
1. (a) contacting the feed slurry with a nonpolar liquid solvent selected from ... a coal liquefaction product
2. The process of claim 1 wherein said feed slurry is produced from coal."
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We close our excerpts from the technically-dense Patent here, because a couple of points have already been made.
First, they can, and are, herein deriving a premium oil from Coal. That's what the technology is all about.
Second, though, as we have elsewhere documented to be feasible and practical, they seem to be recycling "coal liquefaction product" back through the system to enhance and improve extraction of oil from the raw Coal feed.
Regardless, of the technicalities, the real point is that, in 1979, a very major chemical corporation and our own US Government agreed that we could synthesize "Premium Oil" from Coal.
Instead of subsequently enduring three decades of economic subservience to Big Oil and OPEC, why didn't we; why aren't we?