Gasification of carbonaceous solid fuels
We have often cited, in the course of our reportage documenting the efficient and very real technologies that would, if implemented, enable the United States to convert her abundant reserves of Coal into the liquid hydrocarbon fuels she needs, the Coal conversion work of our local Consolidation Coal Company, Consol, now assimilated into Conoco, and of their accomplished Coal conversion scientist, Everett Gorin.
Sadly, we have found the information we've now accumulated concerning Consol's Coal conversion developments to be of such volume that it is beyond our disabled and exigent circumstances to report it all in an organized, coherent fashion.
Consequently, we have elected to begin presenting our remaining documentation of Consol's Coal conversion developments in a piecemeal way, in daily dispatches over the coming weeks - yes, weeks, there is that much of it - organized as best we can, given our circumstances, chronologically.
We also acknowledge that our coming reports on Consol's Coal conversion technology might, at times, be redundant relative to, but hopefully not directly repetitive of, information we've previously submitted.
Toward that end, first up, we present, from a time before some of us geezers were even in grade school, a Consol invention confirming many other of our previous reports, wherein a substance, like Coal, composed primarily of Carbon, can be transformed into raw Hydrocarbons, suitable for further converting and refining into gaseous and liquid hydrocarbon fuels, through controlled interactions with Steam.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 2,682,455 - Gasification of Carbonaceous Solid Fuels
Date: June, 1954
Inventor: Everett Gorin, Pittsburgh
Assignee: Consolidation Coal Company, Pennsylvania
Abstract: This invention relates to the gasification of carbonaceous solid fuels and, more particularly, to methods of and apparatus for reacting carbonaceous solid fuels with steam.
The primary object of this invention is to provide an improved process for converting carbonaceous solid fuels into a gaseous product by reaction with steam ... under such conditions that no heat need be added to the system, i.e., under thermoneutral conditions.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an improved method for converting carbonaceous solid fuels into a gas which is rich in hydrogen ... ."
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We keep our excerpts deliberately brief, especially since our coming reports on Consol's Coal conversion achievements will prove to be compendious.
The point is: To make hydrocarbon liquids and gases from Coal, we need to add Hydrogen to the mix.
We can turn that trick with Steam, in an efficient process, using only Coal and Water, that requires no external supply of energy, as in "no heat need be added to the system".
We have documented all of those facts previously, from other nearly-irrefutable sources. And, as you will see in dispatches to follow, Consol, especially, and others, confirmed and refined the technology for hydrogenating Coal with Steam throughout ensuing decades.
