We have been attempting, in the course of our reportage, to document the fact that Hydrogen, which is needed to hydrogenate the primarily carbonaceous compounds of which Coal is comprised, so that hydrocarbons, serviceable as direct replacements for those we now derive from petroleum, can be synthesized from Coal, can be generated as an integral function of a total Coal conversion process.
We have also been documenting the rather extraordinary achievements of Pittsburgh, PA's former Gulf Oil Corporation in the field of Coal conversion, to synthesize liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons, which, like those of our local Consolidation Coal Company, were extensive, thorough, spanned decades, and remain almost entirely unknown and unappreciated.
In any case, we do need Hydrogen to hydrogenate Coal, if we really do want a non-OPEC, ocean-safe source of hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals.
Gulf Oil, via it's P&M Mining subsidiary's accomplished Coal conversion scientist, Bruce Schmid, herein tells us how to get that Hydrogen, from Coal.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 4,159,237 - Coal Liquefaction Process Employing ... A Combined Gasifier
Date: June, 1979
Inventor: Bruce Schmid, CO
Assignee: Gulf Oil Corporation, Pittsburgh
Abstract: Conversion of raw coal to distillate liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon products by solvent liquefaction in the presence of molecular hydrogen employing recycle of mineral residue is commonly performed at a higher thermal efficiency than conversion of coal to pipeline gas in a gasification process employing partial oxidation and methanation reactions. The prior art has disclosed a combination coal liquefaction-gasification process employing recycle of mineral residue to the liquefaction zone wherein all the normally solid dissolved coal produced in the liquefaction zone is passed to a gasification zone for conversion to hydrogen, where the amount of normally solid dissolved coal passed to the gasification zone is just sufficient to enable the gasification zone to produce the process hydrogen requirement.
Claims: A combination coal liquefaction-gasification process ... .
2. The process of claim 1 wherein a portion of said additional amount of synthesis gas is not subjected to said H2 - CO separation step and is burned as fuel in said process.
3. The process of claim 1 wherein a portion of said additional amount of synthesis gas is converted to an other fuel.
18. The process of claim 3 wherein said other fuel is methane.
19. The process of claim 3 wherein said other fuel is methanol.
... synthesis gas produced is passed through a shift reactor to produce the precise quantity of process hydrogen required."
----------
Methane and Methanol are almost precious commodities, aside from being, respectively a gaseous and a liquid fuel in their own rights. Methane can be tri-reformed, as per Penn State University, and others, with reclaimed Carbon Dioxide, and thereby chemically convert, recycle, that supposed greenhouse pollutant into additional liquid hydrocarbons. Methanol can be directly converted, as per ExxonMobil and their "MTG"(r) technology, into Gasoline; and, it is a valuable raw material for the production of plastics and other industrial products.
The full patent is far more detailed and thorough; and, it explains, yet again, how a complete Coal conversion process can also be designed so as to provide for all of it's own energy requirements, and be made to generate some byproducts of additional commercial value.
