CONVERSION OF COAL TO LIQUID PRODUCTS
Yesterday, we made report of: "United States Patent 4,191,700 - Synthetic Liquid Fuels; March, 1980", a Coal liquefaction technology developed by scientists working for California's Electric Power Research Institute.
Herein, we see that other West Coast entities have developed Coal conversion technologies of their own.
As excerpted from the enclosed link and attached document:
"United States Patent 3,518,182 - Conversion of Coal to Liquid Products
Date: June, 1970
Inventor: Norman Paterson, California
Assignee: Chevron Research Company, San Francisco
Abstract: This disclosure relates to a process for converting coal primarily to motor fuels by a (combination process wherein) several cuts are selectively subjected to hydrogenation and coking as interconnected processing steps to obtain a high yield of motor fuel ... .
The yield of 4.5 bbl of motor fuel per ton of Utah bituminous coal ... illustrates the high efficiency ... .
The invention relates to a process for the conversion of solid carbonaceous materials to primarily liquid hydrocarbon products. More particularly, this invention relates to a combination process for the production of hydrogen-enriched products such as gasoline from materials such as coal."
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The Chevron process, as fully described in the patent, upon reflection, seems straightforward enough; but, it is described in a way so complex that we end our excerpts here.
Basically, Chevron posits, as we have documented from other sources to be feasible, recycling hydrogenated primary and secondary Coal liquids back through the system until all, or nearly all, of the Carbon in the original Coal is liquefied.
And, as we will see in a dispatch soon to follow, Chevron perceived, forty years ago, great promise in this Coal liquefaction technology; as they also proposed applying it to other solid carbonaceous, and Carbon recycling, materials, as well.
So, the technology exists, and has existed for at least forty years, as affirmed herein by our expert United States Government patent examiners, to convert bituminous Coal, as is abundant in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, while being essentially non-existent in California, to liquid "motor fuel", at a rate of "4.5 bbl ... per ton".
Why haven't we yet started using that technology?
