United States Patent: 4199327
As we have reported several times to be feasible, a properly-designed Coal conversion facility can be made to "co-generate" multiple products, thereby maximizing Coal's already-great utility and versatility, and reducing the effective cost of each product generated.
Electricity, synthetic natural gas and liquid fuels can all be made, concurrently or consecutively, from Coal; with the market value of each subsidizing the production cost of the others.
That concept is embodied in the enclosed United States Patent, issued to the old Kaiser Engineers, of California; who are now reduced, we think, to, as part of an international holding company, doing clean-up work for the USDOE at one or two decommissioned nuclear weapons facilities.
In any case, their patent on a combination technology to maximize Coal's utility is quite lengthy, and we present only minimal excerpts, with brief comment appended, as follows:
"United States Patent 4,199,327 - Process ... to Maximize Coal Utilization and Minimize ... Waste
Date: April, 1980
Inventor: Hugh Hempill, et.al.
Assignee: Kaiser Engineers, Inc.; California
Abstract: Coarse, graded coal is fed to a pressurized relatively fixed bed, non-slagging gasifier from which crude gas is recovered. Fine coal is slurried in an aqueous mixture comprising the discharge from the relatively fixed bed gasifier, which discharge is composed of hydrocarbons, phenolic water and other liquids as major components and additional makeup water, if required, and the slurry is fed to a slagging, pressurized entrained flow gasifier from which additional crude gas is recovered. The two streams of gas are cleaned and then used to meet a variety of demands, including, but not limited to, gas turbine generation of electric power, manufacture of synthetic natural gas and manufacture of methanol.
This invention relates to an improved process for the gasification of coal. The process makes maximum use of run-of-the-mine coal and otherwise environmentally unattractive waste products for maximum recovery of useful gas products. In this era of energy shortage and need for protection of the environment, the need for an economical and effective process for coal gasification is vital.
The hybrid process system of this invention will also produce a synthetic natural gas consisting of more than 98% methane ... ."
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"Electric power", "synthetic natural gas", and "methanol" - which can be converted into gasoline or used to make plastics - all made from Coal, and all at the same facility, sounds pretty good, doesn't it?
Note that the gas herein produced from Coal is "more than 98% methane"; and, recall that Methane can be, according to Penn State University and others, reacted with Carbon Dioxide, in bi-reforming and tri-reforming processes, to recycle CO2 into useful and valuable higher hydrocarbons.
This patent echoes similar reports we've previously made to the WV Coal Association, and we submit it now primarily because it specifies, in the body of the Disclosure, the use of "Lurgi fixed bed type" Coal gasifiers.
Lurgi, of Germany, has been a close partner of South Africa's Sasol in the manufacture of gasoline and other liquid fuels from Coal; and, Sasol and Lurgi have, or at one time together had, a joint venture company dedicated to the development and promotion of that technology.
And, we intend, in future reports, to further document Lurgi's Coal gasification technology, and how it has, and can be, applied to the efficient conversion of Coal into needed gaseous and liquid fuels.
