We know this submission is redundant to, but we don't think directly repetitive of, earlier of our reports concerning other US-Patented Coal hydrogenation and conversion technologies developed and owned by Standard Oil.
It is further confirmation, from our own United States Government, that the hydrogenation and gasification of Coal, in order to generate a synthesis gas particularly well-suited for catalytic condensation into liquid hydrocarbons, can be accomplished simply by reacting Steam with hot Coal.
Moreover, it also confirms earlier of our reports wherein methods for the Steam gasification of Coal, in order to produce hydrocarbon synthesis gas, can be designed so as to minimize co-production of Carbon Dioxide.
Though not reflected in our excerpts, Standard Oil specifies that their process, as disclosed in the full document, for generating hydrocarbon synthesis gas from Coal, results in the co-production, from the process itself, of an amount of Carbon Dioxide that is only 3 percent of the total amount of hydrocarbon synthesis gas generated.
That sounds manageable to us - especially since CO2 can then be reacted, "bi-reformed" or "tri-reformed", as per other of our reports, with some of the hydrocarbon gases arising from this Steam gasification of Coal, in order to synthesize even more hydrocarbons - although the minimal amounts of CO2 co-produced by this technology might not justify the effort.
Brief explanatory comment follows excerpts from the enclosed link to and attached file of:
"United States Patent 2,527,197 - Producing Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen from Carbonaceous Solids
Date: October, 1950
Inventor: Walter Rollman, NJ
Assignee: Standard Oil Development Company, DE
Abstract: (An) object of my invention is to provide a process for producing a mixture of CO and hydrogen ... .
The production of hydrocarbons, both gaseous and liquid, by using carbon monoxide and hydrogen is old.
(Further) it affords a means of forming valuable hydrocarbons which may be converted, for example, to gasoline ... and other products ordinarily obtained from petroleum.
The most commonly used method of preparing carbon monoxide and hydrogen involves the reaction between steam and carbonaceous materials such as coal ... .
Claims: A continuous process for producing a mixture of CO and H2 of sufficient purity to be utilized in a hydrocarbon synthesis process ... ."
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Rollman does propose burning Coal to generate some of the heat energy required to drive some of the sequential reactions between Coal and Steam he describes, and, thus, some secondary CO2 must be emitted in the flue gasses - though, again, the product synthesis gas contains only three percent of it.
It seems feasible, to us, that the heat-generating, energy-providing function could be replaced by a source reliant on environmental energy, such as a purpose-installed "mini" hydroelectric generating station retrofitted to an existing locks and dam facility, as has been proposed for the Hannibal Locks and Dam, on the Ohio River north of New Martinsville, WV.
If so, then a facility for producing "a mixture of CO and H2 of sufficient purity to be utilized in a hydrocarbon synthesis process" - a synthesis process that, in 1950, was already "old" - in order to produce "gasoline", from "the reaction between steam and ... coal", with only minor co-production of Carbon Dioxide, would seem more than just feasible. It sounds eminently practical.
