United States Patent: 3726966
We have been documenting that considerable effort has been put into the development of technologies for economically generating Hydrogen, so that it could be employed to hydrogenate the primarily carbonaceous liquids derived from Coal, and thus convert those Coal liquids into hydrocarbons more compatible with our current transportation fleet's liquid fuel refining and delivery infrastructure.
Now posted on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site, for instance, are reports of two United States Patents issued to Consolidation Coal Company, "USP 3188179 - Hydrogen from Hydrocarbon Gas and Steam" and "USP 3115394 - Process for the Production of Hydrogen", wherein they disclose technologies developed specifically to generate Hydrogen for the purposes of Coal liquefaction.
As the United States Patent herein enclosed attests, the Oil Industry, as well, recognized, and addressed, the need for supplies of Hydrogen, so that they, too, could liquefy Coal - apparently when they were finally darned good and ready to do so.
First, as a foreword, we present one passage taken from our following excerpts of this US Patent:
"Considerable emphasis has been placed upon hydrogen production in recent years because of dwindling supplies of crude oil and the likely necessity for converting coal, petroleum residuum, tar sands, or oil shale to liquid hydrocarbons. Such conversions require copious volumes of low-cost, relatively pure hydrogen which is needed to be generated on location."
With that acknowledgement, by this representative of the oil industry, that "converting coal" will "likely" be a "necessity", they set out about telling us how to get the needed "copious volumes of low-cost, relatively pure hydrogen" in:
"United States Patent 3,726,966 - Barium Promoted Iron Oxide ... Process for Producing Hydrogen
April 1973
Inventor: Harlin Johnston, OK
Assignee: Phillips Petroleum Company, OK
Abstract: Barium is incorporated with iron oxide to prepare a catalyst or contact mass for use in steam-iron process for producing hydrogen. A process for producing hydrogen using such catalyst is set forth.
Claims: A process for production by hydrogen by the known steam-iron process which comprises employing a catalyst which comprises iron oxide promoted with barium, said catalyst having ... an effective life after several oxidative and reductive cycles.
Description: In one of its concepts, the invention provides a catalyst or contact mass suitable for use effectively to produce hydrogen from steam which comprises promoting an iron oxide catalyst or contact mass with barium.
As known, hydrogen is used in a variety of processes for beneficiating hydrocarbonaceous materials, such as petroleum oil, petroleum residua, coal, tar sands, oil shale and the like. Usually, the objective is to convert such materials to liquid hydrocarbons of certain properties which are required for various uses of the products.
Considerable emphasis has been placed upon hydrogen production in recent years because of dwindling supplies of crude oil and the likely necessity for converting coal, petroleum residuum, tar sands, or oil shale to liquid hydrocarbons. Such conversions require copious volumes of low-cost, relatively pure hydrogen which is needed to be generated on location."
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So, this oil industry major, because of the looming "necessity for converting coal", developed an economical process to generate the Hydrogen needed for the more productive conversion of Coal into liquid hydrocarbon fuels. And, they successfully developed that technology, as our US Government herein affirms, almost forty years ago.
Why haven't we, in the four decades since, even heard about it in US Coal Country? Why haven't we started using it?