United States Patent: 4497970
We have been documenting to the point of tedium that Methane can be synthesized from either Carbon Dioxide, via the Sabatier technique, or, from Coal, via processes of Steam gasification.
We have also documented that other simple hydrocarbons, such as ethane and ethylene, can be similarly manufactured from the same raw materials.
Herein, from British Petroleum, we submit additional evidence, confirming other of our previous reports, that, once those simple hydrocarbons are synthesized from Coal or Carbon Dioxide, they can be further processed into products, which, as the patent states:
"are rich in aromatics and can either be used as a gasoline blending component (because they have a high octane value) or as a petrochemical feedstock".
Moreover:
"The process of the present invention has an advantage over prior processes in that all by-product hydrocarbons such as methane hitherto considered non-desirable can be recycled to extinction to produce aromatics in a single stage. The process is also capable of operating at relatively lower temperatures than used hitherto for aromatisation reactions".
Additional comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 4,497,970 - Aromatics Production
Date: February, 1985
Inventor: Dennis Young, UK
Assignee: The British Petroleum Company, London
Abstract: This invention relates to a process for converting a feedstock comprising aliphatic or alicyclic hydrocarbons into aromatic hydrocarbons by bringing into contact in a fluid phase a mixture of the feedstock and an oxidizing agent other than molecular oxygen or a gas containing molecular oxygen into contact with a solid acidic catalyst having Bronsted acid sites. The process is particularly suitable for converting methane, ethane and/or ethylene into aromatics. The solid acidic catalyst with Bronsted acid sites may be an aluminosilicate zeolite with a silica to alumina ratio greater than 12:1. The oxidizing agents other than molecular oxygen or a gas containing molecular oxygen may be selected from nitrous oxide, sulphur trioxide, hydrogen peroxide, ozone, nitric oxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxyfluoride. The process yields high octane value aromatics even from methane at relatively low conversion temperatures.
Claims: A process for converting a feedstock consisting essentially of methane or ethane into aromatic hydrocarbons ... .
Description: The present invention relates to a process for the production of aromatic hydrocarbons from aliphatic and alicyclic hydrocarbons, in particular from methane and ethane.
The products of the reactions are rich in aromatics and can either be used as a gasoline blending component (because they have a high octane value) or as a petrochemical feedstock.
The process of the present invention has an advantage over prior processes in that all by-product hydrocarbons such as methane hitherto considered non-desirable can be recycled to extinction to produce aromatics in a single stage. The process is also capable of operating at relatively lower temperatures than used hitherto for aromatisation reactions (especially of light hydrocarbons)."
----------
Again, and to the point: We can, as earlier confirmed by many other sources, manufacture Methane from either Coal or Carbon Dioxide. Once we have the Methane, we can, as herein, convert it into a "high octane" "gasoline blending component", or, "a petrochemical feedstock" for the manufacture, we presume, of plastics and other, similarly-valuable, materials.