Rights to the United States Patent we report herein are assigned to Conoco, in Connecticut. But, separate web-based sources clearly identify the named inventor as being, or as having been, at the time the patent was issued, an employee of Consolidation Coal Company, at their facility in Library, PA.
That said, we herein submit even additional evidence of two facts we have previously, from multiple sources, documented:
The still-carbonaceous residues, left by an initial and primary process of Coal conversion into hydrocarbons, can themselves be further treated to extract even more hydrocarbon values; and,
Water, in the form of Steam, can be used as the source of Hydrogen for Carbon hydrogenation.
Brief comment follows excerpts from the above link to:
"United States Patent 4,248,605 - Gasification of Coal Liquefaction Residues
Date: February, 1981
Inventor: Michael Lancet, Pittsburgh
Assignee: Conoco, Inc., CT
Abstract: A method for gasifying the bottoms fraction from a coal liquefaction process by mixing the bottoms fraction with at least one finely-divided calcium compound selected from the group consisting of calcium oxide, calcium carbonate and calcium hydroxide ... in an amount sufficient to produce agglomerate particles upon mixing with the bottoms fraction and thereafter gasifying the resulting agglomerate particles by reacting the agglomerate particles with steam in a fluidized bed.
Claims: A method for gasifying the bottoms fraction from a coal liquefaction process wherein coal is liquified by extraction of said coal by a distillable solvent ... said method consisting essentially of ... mixing said bottoms fraction with at least one finely-divided calcium compound ...; and gasifying ... said agglomerates by reacting said agglomerates with steam in a fluidized bed to produce a hydrogen-rich fuel gas.
Description: This invention relates to the gasification of a bottoms fraction from a coal liquefaction process (and) further relates to a method for gasifying a bottoms fraction from a coal liquefaction process wherein the bottoms fraction is mixed with an amount of finely-divided calcium compound sufficient to produce agglomerate particles upon mixing."
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So, by using Limestone, i.e., "calcium carbonate", as above, and Steam, we can take the residues "from a coal liquefaction process" and make "a hydrogen-rich fuel gas" out of them.
We further submit that the original "distillable solvent" needed, as above, could be made from a portion of the original Coal liquefaction products. Other references we have previously recorded for you clearly indicate that, in similar processes, such is definitely the case. Petroleum-based solvents are not required.
Finally, you don't suspect that such "a hydrogen-rich fuel gas", as herein obtained from the residues of a "coal liquefaction process", might constitute, in fact, an hydrogenated synthesis gas suitable for catalytic condensation, via, for one example out of several, the Fischer-Tropsch process, into liquid hydrocarbon fuels, do you?
We do.