United States Patent: 3838993
We have documented, and, because of the importance we instinctively feel should be ascribed to the concept, will continue to document, the fact that Hydrogen-rich gasses, such as Methane, and other hydrocarbon products, can be generated via the Steam-gasification of Coal.
The concept is important, since Coal is composed primarily of Carbon, which must in some way be efficiently hydrogenated so that needed liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon products, suitable as direct substitutes for those we now extract from petroleum, can be synthesized from Coal.
Moreover, as concerns the production of Methane, which is the primary target of the Esso invention we document herein, that specific material is assuming, for us, in the course of our ongoing study, increasing importance, for reasons we have already many times elaborated for you.
As with many of the petroleum industry technologies we have brought to your attention, the inventors herein are seemingly reluctant to reveal the fact that Coal is a suitable raw material for the production of Methane, and get around to revealing that fact only in the "Preferred Embodiments" section, a portion of which we reproduce, for emphasis, as a foreword:
"The process of this invention is suitable for the conversion of a great variety of hydrocarbon feedstreams containing heavy hydrocarbons and which may further contain contaminants such as sulfur compounds, metals and/or nitrogen compounds. ... By way of example, suitable hydrocarbon feeds include whole petroleum crude; ... heavy hydrocarbon oils ...; deasphalted residua; ... pitch, asphalt and bitumen from coal, tar sands or shale; ... . Furthermore, to any of these suitable hydrocarbon feeds may be added a solid carbonaceous material such as coke or coal."
But, there is more, perhaps far more, to it than that.
As we summarize, following brief additional excerpts from:
"United States Patent 3,838,993 - Conversion of Heavy Hydrocarbons to a Methane-Rich Gas
Date: October, 1974
Inventor: Clyde Aldridge, LA
Assignee: Esso Research and Engineering Company, NJ
Abstract: Heavy hydrocarbons are treated with steam in the presence of a non-molten particulate alkali metal containing catalyst to produce a methane-containing vapourous product. At least a portion of the vaporous product is converted to additional methane in a second stage in the presence of the non-molten alkali metal containing catalyst."
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Now, here's a kicker for you, the implications of which should jump out at any concerned Coal Country partisan; as extricated from deep within the bowels of the full Disclosure's description of this Esso/Exxon "two-stage" process:
"... passing at least a portion of the steam and CO2 -removed vaporous product and a portion of said particulate catalyst to a second reaction zone maintained at a pressure between 250 and 1,500 psig and at a higher average temperature than the actual temperature maintained in the first reaction zone to produce a methane rich gaseous product..."
In other words, in a first reaction zone, Coal is reacted with Steam to produce Methane.
