Our United States Department of Energy's Savannah River, South Carolina, National Laboratory is another of their facilities which has been at work developing Coal liquefaction technologies that can, as well, include biomass in the feed; a feature which adds elements of both sustainability and Carbon recycling to a liquid hydrocarbon fuels synthesis process necessarily based, because of the economies of scale, on Coal.
One notable facet of Savannah River's technology is that, in addition to generating liquid hydrocarbon fuels from Coal and Carbon-recycling biomass, their process also generates a relatively pure stream of effluent Carbon Dioxide as off-gas by-product.
That might not sound all that nifty, unless you consider our earlier, and ongoing, reports concerning the development of Carbon Dioxide and Water Co-electrolysis technology, as revealed, for instance, by the USDOE's Idaho National Laboratory in their disclosure of the "Syntrolysis" process, wherein Carbon Dioxide and Water are electrolyzed together, and made thereby to generate a synthesis gas, composed of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide, which is, according to other sources we will cite in coming reports, well-suited for Fischer-Tropsch, or similar, catalytic condensation into liquid hydrocarbons.
So, the pure Carbon Dioxide captured by Savannah River National Laboratory's Carbon-recycling Coal liquefaction technology, which synthesizes liquid hydrocarbons, could be mixed with Water in Idaho National Laboratory's Syntrolysis technology to generate even more hydrocarbons; and, everybody's happy.
But, nuts to him. Brief comment follows excerpts from the enclosed link to:
"Biomass and Coal into Liquid Fuel with CO2 Capture; Savannah River National Laboratory
A scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory has developed a new and efficient process to produce biofuels from coal and other biomass. The new single-step hydrolysis process co-converts coal and any biomass to a liquid fuel while generating a high purity carbon dioxide as a byproduct.
For most of the twentieth century there have been numerous methods to convert coal to liquid. The three primary methods have been pyrolysis/carbonization, hydrogenation, and indirect gas-to-liquids (Fischer-Tropsch).
This new invention could have economic significance as it eliminates costly hydrogen production in coal liquifaction. It also converts lignin and cellulose easily which are unconvertible in biomass fermentation. The new liquefaction method ... (yields) ... a liquefied product that is soluble in tetrahydrofuran. The process, which can substitute water for an alcohol had been found to generate 95% liquid yield with a nearly pure recoverable carbon dioxide byproduct. Data analysis of this product from coal has shown an increase in hydrogen and carbon content with a decrease in sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, and ash.
Benefits
Single-step process applicable to a variety of feedstocks
Pure CO2 by-product
High yields
No hydrogen required
Patent pending
Applications and Industries: This technology has market applications for biomass, or coal conversion into transportation fuels. This process provides potential energy and environmental benefits as well as profitability to major oil companies, biomass producers, biorefiners, coal mining and federal and state governments.
Patent Pending."
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You know, what we find most entertaining in the full report, as available through the link, is the USDOE's acknowledgement of a point we have earlier made, and which should, at the very least, be a little thought provoking.
They provide an illustrated schematic of their process, with drawings indicating the materials and stages.
Among the feed stocks indicated as suitable for liquefaction is the image of a lump of Coal.
It is labeled as: "Aged Biomass".
Like some of us old coal miners, it is very well-aged biomass, but still biomass, nonetheless; as acknowledged by the USDOE again in the statement: "Savannah River National Laboratory has developed a new and efficient process to produce biofuels from coal and other biomass".
And, our beloved old biomass can be synergistically combined with fresh biomass, as herein reported by the United States Department of Energy, to provide us with an ongoing supply of clean, domestically-sourced liquid "transportation fuels".
