METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING MIXTURES OF METHANE,CARBON MONOXIDE,AND HYDROGEN
Yesterday we sent you a report detailing: "United States Patent 3,442,619 - Production of Hydrogen via the Steam-Iron Process", dated May of 1969 and assigned to Pittsburgh's Consolidation Coal Company.
In it, Consol disclosed what they described as "An improved process for making hydrogen by the steam-iron reaction" which they related "to the production of hydrogen and steam-hydrogen mixtures for use in synthesis processes".
The invention is, in fact, a method to economically obtain Hydrogen for the further hydrogenation of carbonaceous liquids and gases derived from Coal, so that direct replacements for hydrocarbon fuels could be efficiently synthesized.
Herein, via the enclosed link and attached file, we see that Consol continued to improve their technology for obtaining Hydrogen, to hydrogenate Coal derivatives, and were awarded yet another patent for obtaining Hydrogen for use in Coal conversion processes in the following year.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 3,503,724 - Producing Mixtures of Methane, Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen
Date: March, 1970
Inventor: H.E. Benson, Pittsburgh
Assignee: Consolidation Coal Company, Pittsburgh
Abstract: In a continuous steam-iron process wherein finely divided iron oxides are reduced in a reduction zone and the reduced iron oxides are reacted with steam in an oxidation zone to make hydrogen, the improvement whereby high B.t.u. gas may be made from carbonaceous materials which comprises effecting hydrogasification of carbonaceous material in said oxidation zone, and combustion of carbonaceous material in said reduction zone, so that only two zones, instead of the usual four, are required for making high B.t.u. gas by the steam-iron process. This application relates to the production of mixtures of methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen from ... coal, although other carbonaceous material can be used as feedstock.
In my present invention, the iron oxidation and coal hydrogasification steps are carried out in one reaction vessel and the steps of generating producer gas and reducing iron oxide are carried out in a second reaction vessel.
(Moreover) it is not necessary to pretreat the raw coal prior to the hydrogasification step, and methane and hydrogen ... become part of the product gases."
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Consol provides more specifics of the economies achieved in the full Disclosure. But, the plain fact is, that:
Forty years ago, we knew how, in a simplified process, to make an hydrogenated syngas directly from Coal, which, as in United States Patent 3,442,619, cited above, was eminently suitable "for use in synthesis processes".
Such "synthesis processes", we assure you, would provide, and would have provided, the United States of America with all the liquid hydrocarbon fuels she needs, and which she has needed for the last forty years; all from Coal; and, all without a single drop of American blood spilled in the deserts of Arabia or a single drop of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico.
