As we will report in a dispatch to follow, the United States isn't the only nation with unnoticed wheels spinning in the dark, remote, unvisited, even unknown by the general public, swamp of Coal liquefaction.
That is aside from even more evidence of two facts demonstrated herein:
First, Germany, well before WWII, clearly telegraphed, to the US, her synthetic fuels punch, which later became, as we've documented, as testament to the reality of Coal conversion technology, an urgent matter of strategic planning for the Allied Command.
Second, and more importantly for us, by issuance of the enclosed Patent, all the way back in 1938, the United States Government confirmed that the Carbon content of Coal could be hydrogenated, so that liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons could be more efficiently synthesized from Coal, through the action of Steam.
Comment follows excerpts from the link to, and attached file of, the oddly-titled:
"United States Patent 2,113,774 - Process for the Gasification of Dust
Date: April, 1938
Inventor: Hans Schmalfeldt, Germany
Abstract: In gasifying fuels for the purposes of producing a gas free from nitrogen or poor in nitrogen, for exampled water gas, even today large coke is employed. The use of coke presents the advantage that, during the hot blowing, a quantity of heat can be accumulated in the glowing coke bed, sufficient to supply the quantity of heat necessary for the gasification with water vapor corresponding to the two equations:
C + H2O = CO + H2 (and) C + 2H2O = CO2 + 2H2
Under certain conditions ... it may be preferable to carry out the gasification of the coal in the dust state.
The finely divided carbonaceous fuel (coal, charcoal, ... etc.) is gasified by means of circulating gas (which) always contains steam."
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Note that the relative contents of CO and CO2 in the product gas can, implicitly, be controlled by varying the amount of Steam (H2O) reacted with the Coal (C); presumably enabling production of synthesis gases with final compositions ideally, and adjustably, suited for Fischer-Tropsch, and related, catalytic condensation into a variety of liquid hydrocarbons.
Note, too, that this is another Coal conversion technology wherein, as per: "coke presents the advantage that, during the hot blowing, a quantity of heat can be accumulated in the glowing coke bed, sufficient to supply the quantity of heat necessary"; all the energy needed to drive the transformation of Coal into more versatile hydrocarbons can be derived from the Coal itself.
Finally, the inventor specifies that other forms of Carbon, including "Charcoal", presumably of botanic origin, can be utilized in this Coal hydro-conversion process, providing another example of how a technology based on Coal can enable the recycling of Carbon made available, through photosynthesis, from atmospheric Carbon Dioxide.
