1934 German CoalTL US Patent

Patent US1950333
 
We've submitted a number of reports documenting Germany's development of Coal-to-Liquid conversion technology earlier in the last century; and, their, and Japan's, use of that technology to fuel the Axis armies during WWII.
 
We've also documented their open disclosure of their CoalTL technology, prior to the war.
 
Herein, we document, with a United States Patent issued to a German inventor, that, as early as 1934, Germany had telegraphed her Coal-to-Liquid synthetic fuel punch.
 
We'll note, as well, without citation, that this invention is coincident with another US Patent, issued to German inventors in the early 1930's, for the conversion of Methane, as can be synthesized from Carbon Dioxide via the 1912 Nobel-winning Sabatier process, into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
 
With some amusement, we noted that this German inventor, as have some of our own United States Big Oil companies, in their Coal conversion patents, managed to somehow avoid use of the offensive, four-letter word, "Coal".
 
But, the meaning and intent of this US-patented German technology should be perfectly clear.
 
And, very interestingly, the German inventor notes a fact far more recently "re-discovered" by some petroleum companies, as we have documented for you, in their own reports on, and US patents of, Coal conversion technology: Sulfur inherent in some Coal can actually improve the efficiency of some indirect Coal conversion processes.
 
Brief comment follows excerpts from:
 
"Destructive Hydrogenation of Carbonaceous Materials - United States Patent 1,950,333
 
March, 1934
 
Inventor: Lajos von Szeszich, Germany
 
The present invention relates to the treatment by means of hydrogen or gases containing hydrogen, of carbonaceous materials particularly materials containing sulfur ... . The starting materials are converted into valuable products which are usually liquid ... .
 
The present invention is based on the new experience that hydrogenation processes ... may be favourably carried out catalytically by means of hydrogen sulfide ... (employed in conjunction with molybdenum or tungsten catalysts).
 
... hydrogen sulfide in the circulating gases is maintained such that the activity of the molybdenum or tungsten catalyst if promoted."
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We are, of course, making the assumption that anyone even remotely with the Coal industry can surmise as to where we might obtain such beneficial Hydrogen Sulfide.
 
But, we're also making the assumption that no ordinary citizen resident in US Coal Country knew that the Sulfur in their Coal could help them make liquid hydrocarbon fuels from that Coal.
 
Of course, not many residents of US Coal Country seem to aware that we can, with or without Sulfur, make liquid hydrocarbon fuels out of our abundant Coal, in the first place.
 
Germany, and our own US Government, as embodied in the Patent Office, knew it back in 1934.