We continue to document the ongoing development, and improvement, of Coal conversion technologies, throughout the latter half of the last century, by the companies that became ExxonMobil, with this submission from very nearly four decades ago.
Like much of what we report, it confirms that, not only have petroleum companies known how to convert our abundant Coal into liquid hydrocarbons, into direct replacements for imported petroleum, for a very long time, but, they were also continuously at work improving those technologies of Coal conversion.
The invention described herein is merely a refinement on an established Coal liquefaction technology, which uses products derived from Coal to improve the yields of liquid hydrocarbons produced from Coal.
As we briefly summarize following excerpts from:
"United States Patent 3,700,583 - Coal Liquefaction Using Carbon Radical Scavengers
Date: October, 1972
Inventors: J.E. Salamony, et. al., South Carolina and Texas
Assignee: Esso Research and Engineering Company
Abstract: Coal liquefaction yields are increased by liquefying the coal in a liquefaction zone as a slurry in a hydrogen donor solvent in the presence of a carbon radical scavenger selected from quinones ... . Preferably a coal liquid stream ... is oxidized to generate quinones, and the oxidized stream is recycled to the liquefaction zone.
Background: This invention relates to the production of coal liquids from solid coal (which) can be upgraded for petroleum-like uses.
One method ... involves heating the coal ... in an oil derived from the coal and (which) contains partially hydrogenated polynuclear aromatics which have the ability to donate hydrogen to the liquids being made from the coal ... ."
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The "quinones", as above, which are themselves extracted from Coal liquids, apparently enhance the uptake, and subsequent hydrogenation, of the carbon provided by the Coal. It is an incremental improvement on an established Coal liquefaction process.
Note, too, that, yet again, primary Coal tars, the "oil derived from the coal", and the long-known "polynuclear aromatics", are specified to serve as the liquefying solvents for the raw Coal.
Everything needed to liquefy Coal, to make "petroleum-like" products out of Coal, can be derived from Coal.
