We have, in a number of previous reports, documented that South Africa Synthetic Oil Limited, SASOL, has, for many decades, been making a variety of liquid hydrocarbon fuels, in multiple facilities, out of Coal.
We have also reported that China, with the help of West Virginia University and the University of North Dakota, among others, has established a Coal liquefaction industrial base which it, at least at one time, planned, again as we documented, to expand to include eighty eight Coal conversion factories.
Herein, we see that China and South Africa are combining their Coal liquefaction talents in order to build and expand the industry.
One interesting forward note: We long ago documented that volatile Coke oven gasses, produced during the conversion of raw Coal into Coke for steel making, and most usually vented or flared, could be recovered and catalytically condensed into liquid hydrocarbons.
That is exactly what the first China-SASOL joint project will entail: Producing liquid hydrocarbon fuels from Coke oven off-gasses generated by their steel industry.
Brief comment follows excerpts from the above link to:
""SA, Chinese coal-to-liquid JV progresses
September, 2010
Clean Coal Technology South Africa, a joint venture between Chinese and South African expertise, has shown considerable progress internationally since its establishment 18 months ago.
The company, headquartered in Midrand, Johannesburg, has the worldwide rights to develop and commercialize its gas-to-liquid, coal-to-liquid and a new combined feed process technology, developed by engineers at the University of the Witwatersrand.
The technology uses a novel Fischer Tropsch process which the company believes is cheaper, with similar or lower Capex and operating costs, than conventional Fischer Tropsch technology.
"It has been described by a panel of internationally renowned experts as having the potential to outperform other available technologies in the same sector," Clean Coal Technology South Africa (CCTSA) said in a recent statement.
CCTSA acts as the project facilitator which sells this cleaner coal-to-liquid fuel technology and also offers turnkey services.
"We believe our process is at the forefront of producing viable environmentally greener coal-to-liquid fuel," executive director Lin Tu said in the statement.
"The solid base of the CCTSA technology is being increasingly recognized amongst international experts and organizations, and was recently successfully reviewed by the Science and Technology Department of China and endorsed by the Chinese Science and Technology Council."
The company launched the commercialization of its coal-to-liquid/gas-to-liquid technology after the operation of its pilot plant, which the company established in China's Shaanxi province, yielded positive results.
One positive result, the company said, was the recent decision by the China National Petroleum Corporation to apply the CCT technology to construct a commercial Fischer Tropsch plant, which uses coking oven gas as the feedstock, in the Chinese Inner Mongolia Autonomous region.
Over the last year, the company had also signed memorandums of understanding and co-operation agreements with a number of leading international firms, including MAN Diesel & Turbo SE and SNC-Lavalin Engineers and Constructors Inc, a subsidiary of one of the world's top international engineering and construction groups.
Three of CCTSA's representatives were in attendance at the World CTL 2010 conference in Beijing, Tu said, where senior consultant Ray Swanepoel delivered a technical paper "which was very well received, and fruitful discussions were conducted with delegates from South Africa, Canada, France, Israel and Turkey.""
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Again: The "China National Petroleum Corporation" has decided "to apply the CCT technology to construct a commercial Fischer Tropsch plant, which uses coking oven gas as the feedstock".
So, CoalTL technology can be used to produce hydrocarbon fuels from what are, essentially, by-products, or wastes, generated by a component of the steel-making industr
