Patent US3694342
We continue, in this submission, to document the development by Exxon, during it's life as Esso, throughout the 1970's, of practical technologies for the conversion of Coal into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
The enclosed example is of some special interest for us, since it provides further documentation of facts we've earlier reported from other credible sources.
As we explain, following excerpts from:
"United States Patent 3,694,342 - Liquefaction of Coal Using Synthesis Gas
Date: September, 1972
Inventors: Frank Sprow and John Keller, Texas
Assignee: Esso Research and Engineering Company
Abstract: The liquefaction of coal in a hydrogen donor solvent is carried out in the presence of a carbon monoxide sensitive catalyst ... . Steam is introduced into the liquefaction zone ... whereby said coal is liquefied without undue deactivation of said catalyst ... .
By the present invention, the use of expensive high-purity hydrogen is avoided by employing the less expensive synthesis gas ... .
Further the solvent employed need not be a hydrogen-donor, thus allowing the use of non-hydrogenated recycle stock as the solvent.
Summary: The present invention is directed to a catalytic process for liquefying coal, using a carbon monoxide-containing synthesis gas as a source of hydrogen for the conversion of coal to a liquefied product.
Deactivation of the hydrogenation catalyst is avoided by introducing steam into the reaction zone ... ."
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We close our excerpts here, even though the rather detailed complete disclosure goes on to explain how Methane can be synthesized via the reactions of Steam with Coal, or with raw synthesis gas, and then converted, with more Steam, into a refined and more hydrogenated syngas; or, even made to produce pure Hydrogen.
All of that leads to the hydrogenation of carbonaceous raw materials derived from Coal, to synthesize hydrocarbons.
Remember, too, that Methane, once synthesized from Coal and Steam, can also be tri-reformed, with Carbon Dioxide, as per Penn State University, as we've documented, to synthesize even more, valuable, hydrocarbons.
Also note, as in "Deactivation of the hydrogenation catalyst is avoided by introducing steam into the reaction zone", that the use of excess Steam, to prevent catalyst deactivation by Carbon deposition, has also been verified, again as we've documented, by Swiss and Israeli scientists in their development of Carbon Dioxide recycling processes to synthesize hydrocarbons, in bi-reforming and tri-reforming systems similar to those described by Penn State.
Finally, and again, a major petroleum company and our United States Government, as herein, confirmed, more than 35 years ago, that technologies exist for the efficient hydrogenation and liquefaction of our abundant Coal, to synthesize, from domestic US resources, the liquid fuels we have become, over the ensuing decades, dependent on largely-unfriendly foreign OPEC nations for the supply of.
Why have we United States citizens yet to hear of it?
Why have we United States citizens yet to benefit from it?
The last question, especially, has, with recent developments in the Gulf of Mexico, assumed a certain, bitter poignancy for those of us genuinely concerned about our natural environment.
We could have been making Gasoline, from Coal, in West Virginia, as herein, for the last almost-fifty years and not killed one single pelican.
Far past time we cut the nonsense and started to get real about our domestic economy, and about our domestic environment.
