We earlier made report, among many others similar, of:
"United States Patent 3,779,725 - Coal Gasification; 1973; Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., PA.
Abstract: A method for producing a synthetic pipeline gas by reacting a carbonaceous fuel in a gasifier to form a gas and thereafter subjecting the gas to additional process steps including a final cryogenic separation of high methane content gas for use as the pipeline gas."
wherein it was demonstrated that Methane, or "high methane content gas", could be efficiently synthesized from Coal.
Herein, we report that the Pittsburgh, PA, USDOE center, in 1987, formerly a laboratory and office of the United States Bureau of Mines, developed a process whereby such Methane, thus produced from Coal, could be converted into Gasoline.
Comment follows excerpts from the above link and attached file of a report made by USDOE scientists Charles Taylor and Richard Noceti, both of whom we have cited several times previously:
"Conversion of Methane to Gasoline-Range Hydrocarbons
Charles E. Taylor and Richard P. Noceti; U.S. Department of Energy; Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center
Existing processes have been assembled in a novel combination capable of producing higher hydrocarbons from methane with high yield and selectivity. Methane, oxygen, and hydrogen chloride react over an oxyhydrochlorination (OHC) catalyst in the first stage to produce predominantly chloromethane and water. In the second stage, the chloromethane is catalytically converted to higher hydrocarbons, namely, paraffins, cycloparaffins, olefins, and aromatics, by an alumino-silicate zeolite. In the process described, the final hydro-carbon mixture is largely in the gasoline (C4-C10) boiling range.
Current technology for the conversion of methane to more useful compounds includes steam reforming reactions; halogenation; oxy-chlorination; oxidation, including oxidative coupling and metal oxide reactions; reaction with superacids; and various other methods.
In 1975, Mobil Oil Corporation patented a process.for the conversion of methanol to higher ,hydrocarbons by reaction over a zeolite catalyst, such as ZSM-5. Although later Mobil patents claimed that ZSM-5 wouId convert any monofunctionalized methane to higher hydro-carbons, methanol was the feedstock of interest.
(We demonstrated through our work) an effective method for selective functionalization (of Methane) ... over a zeolite catalyst (that) provides a facile route for conversion of methane to higher hydrocarbons.
The conversion of methane to chloromethane has been observed under various reaction conditions.
Conversion of chloromethane over ZSM-5 to gasoline-range hydrocarbons has been observed to occur under conditions similar to those for the conversion of methanol.
Conclusion: Methane has been converted to higher hydrocarbons boiling in the gasoline range by the two-stage process described. ... The oligomerization of chloromethane to gasoline-boiling-range hydrocarbons occurred under conditions identical to those for methanol."
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The Pittsburgh office of the United States Department of Energy confirmed, as herein, in 1987, that we could make Gasoline from Methane.
The United States Patent Office, confirmed, through award of United States Patent 3,779,725, in 1973, to Pennsylvania's Air Products Company, that we could make Methane from Coal.
The Nobel Committee confirmed, in 1912, through award of it's Prize in Chemistry to Paul Sabatier, that we could also make Methane from Carbon Dioxide - just as NASA, as we recently documented, is planning to do in the future on the planet Mars.