We see herein that, as confirmed by our own United States Government's Patent Office, it has been known since around Thanksgiving Day of our national Bicentennial Celebration Year that we can efficiently convert Coal, at the same time, in the same Coal conversion process, developed, as herein, by Exxon, into both the liquid fuel, Methanol, and the "synthetic natural gas", Methane.
Methanol, as you by now know, can be converted, via ExxonMobil's own "MTG"(r) process, into Gasoline.
Methane - - as you should also by now know, and as we will further confirm today, via separate dispatch reporting United States Patent: 4690777, for the "Production of Synthesis Gas", which was assigned in September of 1987 to the Standard Oil Company - - can be reacted, "reformed", with reclaimed Carbon Dioxide, to recycle that supposed greenhouse pollutant into hydrocarbon fuels.
Brief comment follows excerpts from Exxon's disclosure of how Coal can be efficiently co-converted into both liquid fuel and synthetic "natural" gas:
"United States Patent 3,993,457 - Concurrent Production of Methanol and Synthetic Natural Gas
Date: November 23, 1976
Inventor: Robert Cahn, et. al., NJ
Assignee: Exxon Research and Engineering Company, NJ
Abstract: Methanol and synthetic natural gas are produced concurrently by introducing a carbonaceous material into a gasification zone, and thereafter, passing sequentially the synthesis gas thus formed through a water gas shift conversion zone, a sulfur compound and carbon dioxide removal zone, a methanol synthesis zone and a methanation zone.
Claims: An integrated process for the production of methanol and a synthetic natural gas, which is substantially methane, from a carbonaceous material which comprises the steps of:
a. Gasifying the carbonaceous material in a first reaction zone at sufficient pressure and temperature to produce a synthesis gas stream comprising methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and steam, in which the synthesis gas contains about 30 mole % methane on a dry basis;
b. Passing said synthesis gas stream to a second reaction zone wherein at least a portion of said carbon monoxide is reacted with at least a portion of the steam present therein and is converted at a sufficient temperature and pressure and in the presence of a water gas shift conversion catalyst, to carbon dioxide and hydrogen, thereby producing a converted gas stream with the proviso that the shift conversion is controlled to such an extent as to provide the necessary stoichiometry for the subsequent production of methanol and additional quantities of methane;
a. Gasifying the carbonaceous material in a first reaction zone at sufficient pressure and temperature to produce a synthesis gas stream comprising methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and steam, in which the synthesis gas contains about 30 mole % methane on a dry basis;
b. Passing said synthesis gas stream to a second reaction zone wherein at least a portion of said carbon monoxide is reacted with at least a portion of the steam present therein and is converted at a sufficient temperature and pressure and in the presence of a water gas shift conversion catalyst, to carbon dioxide and hydrogen, thereby producing a converted gas stream with the proviso that the shift conversion is controlled to such an extent as to provide the necessary stoichiometry for the subsequent production of methanol and additional quantities of methane;
c. Passing said converted stream to a third zone wherein the sulfur compounds and a major portion of the carbon dioxide in said converted stream are removed therefrom to produce a purified stream;
d. Passing said purified stream into a fourth reaction zone wherein a portion of the carbon oxides and hydrogen in said purified stream are converted, in the presence of a methanol conversion catalyst and at a sufficient temperature and at pressures ranging from 400 to about 1500 psig, to methanol;
e. Recovering methanol from said fourth reaction zone and separately recovering the unreacted portion of said purified stream which contains a reduced amount of carbon oxides;
f. Passing the unreacted portion of said purified stream containing the remaining carbon oxides, hydrogen, and the methane produced in the first reaction zone from said fourth reaction zone to a fifth reaction zone wherein said remaining carbon oxides and hydrogen are converted, in the presence of a methanation catalyst and at a sufficient temperature and pressure, to methane.
e. Recovering methanol from said fourth reaction zone and separately recovering the unreacted portion of said purified stream which contains a reduced amount of carbon oxides;
f. Passing the unreacted portion of said purified stream containing the remaining carbon oxides, hydrogen, and the methane produced in the first reaction zone from said fourth reaction zone to a fifth reaction zone wherein said remaining carbon oxides and hydrogen are converted, in the presence of a methanation catalyst and at a sufficient temperature and pressure, to methane.
The process ... wherein the carbonaceous material is coal."
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Although not reflected in our excerpts, Exxon also demonstrates that a number of Carbon-recycling materials, such as sewage sludge and cellulose, can be converted into Methanol and Methane, as well, in a process founded on Coal.
Note that any additional Hydrogen needed, to hydrogenate the primarily carbonaceous compounds derived from Coal, in order to synthesize hydrocarbons, is generated as an integrated function, in a "water gas shift conversion", as above, of the overall process.
You will also note that some minor portion of Carbon Dioxide is co-produced. Some of it seems to be recycled into the system, while some is removed.
We submit that the separated Carbon Dioxide, combined with additional Carbon Dioxide reclaimed from other sources, could be reacted, "reformed", with a portion of the Methane co-produced herein from Coal, according to the process disclosed in US Patent 4,690,777, as above, and as in our separate report of that technology; or, via Penn State University's "Tri-reforming" process, which we have elsewhere documented; and, all the CO2 recycled thereby to synthesize even more liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
In any case: Coal can, as herein, be efficiently, at the same time and in the same process stream, converted into both liquid hydrocarbon fuel and "synthetic" natural gas.