United States Patent: 3892654
We have been, and will be further, reporting on the development of Coal liquefaction technologies by Pittsburgh's former Gulf Oil Corporation - now a part of Chevron, who, again as we have documented, and will further document, themselves, prior to and following their assimilation of Gulf, developed Coal conversion technologies of their own.
And, we have documented that the US Government funded some of the Coal liquefaction development undertaken by Gulf, and Gulf's Pittsburg(KS) and Midway, P&M, Coal Mining subsidiary.
Further, we have reported on the US Government's development, through various contractors and at various sites around the nation, including at the military's Fort Lewis, Washington, base, of the Solvent Refined Coal, or "SRC", coal conversion technology, wherein both liquid hydrocarbon and cleaner-burning solid fuels can be generated from Coal.
Herein, we see that all of that was brought together in a United States Patent issued thirty-five years ago.
Some advance notes:
Inventor Charles Wright was employed by P&M. Gerald Pastor was, we believe, based on other references, employed by the US Government at the Fort Lewis SRC pilot plant.
Moreover - and this is important - it is again affirmed herein that the needed Hydrogen, to hydrogenate the Coal liquids, can be obtained as an integral step in the overall process, from reactions between Steam and hot Coal, as in this preliminary excerpt:
"The present process can employ carbon monoxide and steam together with or in place of hydrogen since carbon monoxide and steam react to form hydrogen. The steam can be derived from feeding wet coal or can be injected as water."
And, the US Government, We the People, financed, and own at least a part of, this Coal conversion technology, as in this second preliminary excerpt:
"Government Interests: This invention resulted from work performed under Contract No. 14-01-0001-496 between The Pittsburgh and Midway Coal Mining Co., a subsidiary of Gulf Oil Corporation, and the Office of Coal Research in the Department of the Interior entered into pursuant to the Coal Research Act, 30 USC 661 to 668."
Brief comment follows further excerpts from:
"United States Patent 3,892,654 - Dual Temperature Coal Solvation Process
Date: July, 1975
Inventors: Charles Wright, KS, and Gerald Pastor, WA
Abstract: A solvation process for producing deashed solid and liquid hydrocarbonaceous fuel from coal. Raw coal is slurried with a solvent comprising hydroaromatic compounds in contact with hydrogen in a first zone at a relatively high temperature to dissolve hydrocarbonaceous fuel from coal minerals by transfer of hydrogen from hydroaromatic solvent compounds to hydrocarbonaceous material in the coal. The solvent is then treated with hydrogen in a second zone at a lower temperature to replenish the solvent with hydrogen. Forced cooling of the slurry between zones accomplishes many significant improvements in the process.
Claims: A process for preparing deashed solid and liquid hydrocarbonaceous fuel from hydrocarbonactous feed coal containing ash comprising contacting the feed coal with hydrogen and a solvent ... .
Description: This invention relates to a non-catalytic liquid solvent dissolving process for producing reduced or low ash hydrocarbonaceous solid fuel and hydrocarbonaceous distillate liquid fuel, from ash-containing raw coal. Preferred coal feeds contain hydrogen, such as bituminous and sub-bituminous coals, and lignites. The process produces deashed solid fuel (dissolved coal) together with as much coal derived liquid fuel as possible, with an increase in liquid fuel product being accompanied by a decrease in solid fuel product. Liquid fuel is the more valuable product but the production of liquid fuel is limited because it is accompanied by production of undesired by-product hydrocarbon gases. Although liquid fuel is of greater economic value than deashed solid fuel, hydrocarbon gases are of smaller economic value than either deashed solid fuel or liquid fuel and have a greater hydrogen to carbon ratio than either solid or liquid fuel so that their production is not only wasteful of other fuel product but is also wasteful of hydrogen.
Hydrocarbon gases are produced primarily by hydrocracking, and since their production is undesired in this process no external catalyst is employed, since catalysts generally impart hydrocracking activity in a coal solvation process.
Production of hydrocarbon gases constitutes a waste of product and a needless consumption of hydrogen unless gas handling facilities are available."
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We close our excerpts here to clarify, and to dispute, a few things.
First, the solvent used in this process is a liquid itself derived, in the first place, from Coal, as we have many times reported to be feasible and practical.
Second, these inventors were trying to discourage, as the full Disclosure reveals, the co-production of hydrocarbon gases, so that more solid fuel could be produced, along with hydrocarbon liquids, since such "hydrocarbon gases are of smaller economic value than ... deashed solid fuel".
Not in today's world - when we now know, as we have documented from many sources, that such hydrocarbon gases can be catalytically condensed into liquid fuels themselves; or, better, "bi-reformed" and "tri-reformed" with reclaimed flue-gas Carbon Dioxide, thus recycling that supposed greenhouse pollutant in the synthesis more liquid hydrocarbons.
In any case, we have herein yet another example of both our United States Government, and one of our major local Coal Country corporations, knowing, for more than a quarter of a century, that we can convert our abundant Coal, using Steam to supply the required Hydrogen, into the hydrocarbon liquids and gasses that we want and, increasingly, need.