Herein, we see that Texaco, before some of us geezers were even born, and well before their assimilation by Chevron, as part of their ongoing Coal conversion development effort, which we have begun and which we will continue to document, themselves hit upon what is becoming an obvious fact for us, what has plainly been an obvious fact for the petroleum industry for many decades:
Coal can be cleanly and efficiently hydrogenated, to synthesize more versatile hydrocarbons, through interactions with Steam.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 2,516,974 - Gasifying Carbonaceous Material
Date: August, 1950
Inventor: Allen Garrison, TX
Assignee: Texaco Development Corporation, NY
Abstract: The present invention relates to gasification of solid fuels and is more particularly concerned with the conversion of carbonaceous materials into a gaseous product of high heating value composed primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen ... .
In accordance with the present invention a stream of combustible gases, predominantly hydrogen and carbon monoxide, is produced by the reaction of water vapor with carbon ... .
The present invention ... involves exothermic combustion of at least a portion of the hydrogen evolved ... to supply heat energy requirements of the operation."
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To give Texaco their due, Coal is specifically identified once or twice in the full Disclosure as a suitable "carbonaceous material" which can be gasified with Steam, "water vapor", to produce Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide.
However, they avoid labeling the "stream of combustible gases, predominantly hydrogen and carbon monoxide" produced by gasifying Coal with Steam as what it really is: Hydrocarbon synthesis gas.
Presuming you to have followed at least some of our posts thus far, you will know that such an hydrogenated "syngas" can, once so produced from reactions between hot Coal and Steam, can be passed over Fischer-Tropsch, and related, catalysts and condensed into liquid hydrocarbons.
In other patented technologies we have documented, it's components can be reacted to produce synthetic "natural" gases, such as Methane.
Moreover, and this is important: Our read of the full Disclosure, in confirmation of earlier reports we've made, strongly indicates that the relative proportions of Steam, with some supplemental Oxygen, used to gasify the Coal, can be controlled to maximize the production of reactive Carbon Monoxide and to minimize, or even eliminate, co-production of Carbon Dioxide.
And, finally, the system described herein is so productive of Hydrogen that, as in "The present invention ... involves exothermic combustion of at least a portion of the hydrogen evolved ... to supply heat energy requirements of the operation", the entire process of converting Coal into hydrocarbons can be made to be entirely, or nearly, self-powered. No external energy input would be needed, since the Hydrogen is produced via reactions between Water and hot Coal, and the combustion of excess Hydrogen to power the process would produce only water as a byproduct.
In other words, we have had, in hand, for well more than half a century, a relatively clean technology which would enable us to produce all the hydrocarbons we need by first reacting Steam with hot Coal.