We have made several reports documenting the Coal-to-Liquid conversion accomplishments of Pittsburgh's old Gulf Oil Corporation, which was subsequently, in 1984, merged into Chevron.
Earlier, for instance, we made report of Gulf's "United States Patent 3,884,796 - Solvent Refined Coal Process", issued in 1975, the rights to which were actually assigned to the United States of America, since, as the document revealed, the Coal conversion technology had been developed: "under Contract No. 14-01-0001-496 between The Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Co., a subsidiary of Gulf Oil Corporation, and the Office of Coal Research in the Department of the Interior".
Separately, we have also made many reports documenting the seemingly independent development of multiple Coal Liquefaction technologies, prior to their merger, by the former Exxon and Mobil Oil corporations, and have suggested that their congruent interests in converting Coal into liquid hydrocarbons might have been a motivating factor in their merger.
The same might also have been true of Chevron's absorption of Gulf Oil.
As a foreword, we must note that the attached document contains a description of technology made complex, for most of us, and difficult to fully understand, by it's extensive use of what is, obviously, petroleum refining technical terminology.
Our excerpts are thus very brief, and we attempt inclusion and explanation of no technical detail.
Like many of the references we have provided you, the full document begs study by experts qualified to interpret it more clearly for the rest of us.
However, the main points should be crystal clear, in our excerpts from:
"United States Patent 3,518,182 - Conversion of Coal to Liquid Products
Date: June, 1970
Inventor: Norman Paterson, CA
Assignee: Chevron Research Company, San Francisco
Abstract: This disclosure relates to a process for converting coal primarily to motor fuels.
(Coal is) mixed with solvent ... and hydrocarbons are extracted from the coal by passing the mixture through a heated coil together with H2 and H2O ... .(Resultant products) are selectively subjected to (subsequent processing) steps to obtain a high yield of motor fuel ... .
Background and Field: This invention relates to a process ... for the production of hydrogen-enriched products such as gasoline from materials such as coal.
Three processes to produce liquid fuels from coal have obtained sufficient commercial feasibility to find application abroad (i.e.,) ... the Bergius process, ... the Fischer-Tropsch process, ... (and) the Pott-Broche process ... .
Summary and Claims: (A) process for converting coal to motor fuel ... ."