Coal liquefaction by hydrogenation
We've previously documented the US Bureau of Mines efforts, in the years immediately following WWII, to emulate Germany's and Japan's wartime achievements in the liquefaction of Coal, in order to synthesize liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
Herein, via the two links and two attached documents, and excerpts taken from them, we see that the Bureau actually developed, concurrently, in addition to the "Karrick" Coal conversion process that has been more fully described, and about which we've earlier reported, two processes for the conversion of Coal into liquid fuel.
First, from the above link, we excerpt details of the US Government's invention of a solvent-based direct Coal liquefaction technology.
"United States Patent 2,464,271 - Coal Liquefaction by Hydrogenation
Date: March, 1949
Inventors: Henry Storch and Lester Hirst, Pittsburgh
Assignee: The United States of America
The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by and for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes.
Abstract: This invention relates to ... a low pressure process for the production of liquid hydrocarbons from coals ... . It is ... an object of the present invention ... to provide a continuous process for the preparation of fuel oil from coal."
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The inventors, both of whom we have cited previously, go on, in the full Disclosure, to described their Coal liquefaction process as one that can be operated, as they relate "for extended periods of from 500 to 1,000 hours or more without any attention being required". And, this seems to be a, more or less, direct coal liquefaction process, wherein the solvent that dissolves the coal "is a portion of the liquid made from the coal".
Later, in the same year, another USBM Coal scientist was awarded a patent on what seems to be related Coal conversion technology, as in:
Solvation and depolymerization of coal
"United States Patent 2,476,999 - Solvation and Depolymerization of Coal
Date: July, 1949
Inventor: Milton Orchin, Pittsburgh, PA
Assignee: The United States of America
The invention herein described and claimed may be manufactured by or for the Government of the United States of America.
Abstract: This invention relates to the conversion of ... bituminous and subbituminous coals ... to liquid products of enhanced values and utility.
It is an object of my invention to secure the solution of solid carbonizable fuels under the mildest conditions possible (and) the improvement of hydrogenation of coal ... using for the vehicle ... liquid fractions produced from such extracts."
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The solvents named specifically by Orchin, in the full Disclosure, are all primary Coal oils, or derivatives of such oils. Included in the ones he names is "1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-5-hydroxynaphthalene", a mouthful, or an eyeful, and a half, which, based on previous of our reports, relates this US Bureau of Mine's technology, we believe, to WVU's West Virginia Process for direct Coal liquefaction.
