United States Patent: 4060478
In earlier reports, we have documented that still-carbonaceous residues left by some primary Coal conversion technologies could themselves be further processed, to yield even more hydrocarbon values.
For instance, residues from the indirect conversion of Coal, via gasification, at the US Government's "COED" project in New Jersey, operated for the Government by FMC Corporation, were sent to Spain for further direct liquefaction with a Hydrogen donor solvent.
Just yesterday, we posted information on Consolidation Coal Company's 1975 US Patent 3,920,418, wherein residues from a solvent-based direct Coal liquefaction process are gasified to yield more hydrocarbons.
The enclosed United States Patent, issued to Exxon only a few years later, appears, to us, in most particulars, very similar to that Consol invention.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 4,060,478 - Coal Liquefaction Bottoms Conversion
Date: November, 1977
Inventor: Robert Lang, Texas
Assignee: Exxon Research and Engineering Company, NJ
Abstract: Heavy bottoms produced by the liquefaction of coal or similar carbonaceous solids are converted into more valuable products by adding an alkaline earth metal compound to the bottoms in a concentration sufficient to give, following pyrolysis of the bottoms, an alkaline earth metal-to-carbon atomic ratio of from about 0.005:1 to about 0.1:1; pyrolyzing the bottoms at a temperature of from about 900 degrees F to about 1600 degrees F to produce gases, hydrocarbon liquids and coke or char containing added alkaline earth metal constituents; and thereafter gasifying the char with steam.
Claims: A process for upgrading heavy bottoms produced by the liquefaction of coal or similar carbonaceous solids which comprises pyrolyzing said bottoms in the presence of an added alkaline earth metal compound to produce coke containing added alkaline earth metal constituents and thereafter gasifying said coke in the presence of steam.
Description: Processes for the liquefaction of coal and similar carbonaceous solids normally involve contacting the feed material with a hydrocarbon solvent ... (to generate products which) are recovered from the liquefaction effluent, leaving a heavy liquefaction bottoms product ... .
A variety of different systems for upgrading liquefaction bottoms have been proposed in the past. Among the most attractive of these is pyrolysis of the bottoms to produce gases, additional hydrocarbon liquids, and coke, followed by steam gasification of the coke to form hydrogen and carbon monoxide for use as a fuel.
(A mixture of "hydrogen and carbon monoxide" is just your basic synthesis gas, "syngas", which can be catalyzed into liquid hydrocarbons. And, note: The carbonaceous "bottoms" are gasified with Steam, to add needed Hydrogen to synthesize the hydrocarbon syngas - just as Coal itself can be Steam gasified in the first place to yield similar hydrocarbon products.)
Studies have shown that such an integrated process has many potential advantages over other processing systems, particularly if a catalyst is added to the coke to accelerate the gasification rate. .
The present invention provides an improved process for the production of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons from coal and related materials."
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So, we have herein yet another Big Oil invention for the complete, economical conversion of Coal into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons, into hydrocarbon fuels which could serve as direct replacements for those we're now killing oceans, and spending ourselves into impoverishment, to get our hands on.
We'll leave it to the lawyers, if anyone cares enough about the subject, to determine if this Exxon patent infringes on Consol's, as noted above.
But, yet again: We have herein even more evidence that we, as a nation, have known how to convert our abundant domestic Coal, fully and completely, into the hydrocarbons we've been importing, and being extorted for the supply of, for more than three decades.