Production of hydrogen-enriched hydrocarbonaceous liquids
As we have been, and will continue, documenting, Pittsburgh, PA's, Consolidation Coal Company devoted considerable effort, from the late-1950's and through the mid-1970's, to the development of Coal conversion technologies for the synthesis of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels.
Primary among the team of scientists they had assigned to that task was our oft-cited Everett Gorin; and, we herein present yet another of his early inventions, which improves both the end products and the economics of synthesizing liquid fuels from Coal.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 3,018,242 - Production of Hydrogen-Enriched Hydrocarbonaceous Liquids
Date: June, 1962
Inventor: Everett Gorin, Pittsburgh
Assignee: Consolidation Coal Company
Abstract: The primary object of this invention is to provide a process for the conversion of bituminous coal to a hydrogen-enriched hydrocarbonaceous liquid suitable as feedstock to a gasoline refining plant.
Another object of this invention is to provide a process for the conversion of bituminous coal to a gasoline refining plant feedstock at a cost comparable to that of producing an equivalent petroleum-derived material.
(We omit reproduction of the technical details. As in many of the other Gorin-Consol Coal conversion patents, they elaborate a multi-step process to maximize productivity. What we find most interesting in this example - aside from the fact that, prior to decades of OPEC oil embargoes and subsequent gasoline price hyperinflation, Consol could make gasoline, from Coal, at a "cost comparable to that of producing" it from petroleum - is that, as we have from other sources documented, primary Coal oils, processes for the extraction of which are, quite literally, centuries old, can be used as solvents in the dissolution and extraction of more raw Coal, as seen in the following passages.)
Suitable solvents for the coal in the extraction step are predominantly polycyclic hydrocarbons, preferably partially or completely hydrogenated aromatics ... derived from the intermediate or final steps of this invention.
Claims: A combination process for the production of hydrogen-enriched hydrocarbonaceous liquid from bituminous coal."
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Again, we know that much of our reportage might seem tediously redundant, though we strive to avoid direct repetition. The redundancy will become even more tedious as, in coming days, we plow through even more documentation of Consol's, and other's, Coal conversion achievements.
The apparent redundancy arises from the immutable fact that clear paths to the production of liquid hydrocarbon fuels, from Coal, at equivalent or comparable costs and quality to those from petroleum, have been hewn by multiple, even many, scientists and organizations for, as herein, at least half a century.
