United States Patent: 4121995
Other web sites indicate the inventor named herein, George Hsu, is employed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, at the California Institute of Technology. And, one provision within the full Patent declares the United States Government's interests, as in:
"The invention described herein was made in the performance of work under a NASA contract...".
So, we'll presume our rocket scientists figured out, successfully, more than 30 years ago, as the patent seems to attest, how to make rocket fuel from Coal.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 4,121,995 - Surfactant-assisted Liquefaction of Particulate Carbon Substances
Date: October 28, 1978
Inventor: George C. Hsu, California
Assignee: The United States of America
Abstract: A slurry of carbonaceous particles such as coal containing an oil soluble polar substituted oleophilic surfactant, suitably an amine substituted long chain hydrocarbon, is liquefied at high temperature and high hydrogen presence. The pressure of surfactant results in an increase in yield and the conversion product contains a higher proportion of light and heavy oils and less asphaltene than products from other liquefaction processes.
Origin of the Invention: The invention described herein was made in the performance of work under a NASA contract and is subject to the provisions of Section 305 of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, Public Law 83-568 (72 Stat. 435; 42 USC 2457).
Claims:
1. ... a method of liquefying a particulate, carbonaceous substance at high temperature and under hydrogen pressure in organic liquid reaction media to form a polar, partially hydrogenated asphaltene intermediate... .
2. A method according to claim 1 in which the substance is coal.
5. A method according to claim 2 in which the liquid media is an anthracene oil.
Background: The present invention relates to liquefaction of carbonaceous substances and more particularly to an improved process for liquefaction of coal."
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"Anthracene oil", as we've many times documented, is one of the primary tars which have been historically, and directly, extracted, from Coal; and, it is one of those Coal oils which, again as we have documented, can be hydrogenated and made to serve as an agent for the liquefaction and hydrogenation of more raw Coal.
In that respect, there isn't much new we've found in the technology described within this US Patent.
What is new is that our official US Government space agency developed it.
And, to us, it complements another NASA invention we've recently documented in a number of posts to the West Virginia Coal Association, most recently on April 25 of this year, wherein it's reported they intend, on the planet Mars, to make rocket fuel out of Carbon Dioxide.
Far past time our US Coal Miners established radio contact with our US Space Rangers, ain't it?
