We earlier made report, as available via: Exxon Coal to Methanol | Research & Development | News; of one process, embodied in "United States Patent 4,348,487 - Production of Methanol via Catalytic Coal Gasification; September, 1982; Assignee: Exxon Research and Engineering Company" wherein Coal can be productively converted into the versatile liquid fuel, Methanol.
Aside from the fact that Eastman Chemical, as we have many times documented, has been doing just that on a commercial scale in Kingsport, Tennessee, for quite some time, herein, from Germany, is further exposition of the ways in which Coal can be transformed into an alcohol that can, via, for one example, ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r) technology, be further converted into Gasoline; or, be used as the basic raw material in the manufacture of a variety of commercially-important plastics.
We point out other uses for Methanol, following excerpts from:
"United States Patent 4,087,449 - Process for Producing Methanol
Date: May, 1978
Inventor: Friedemann Marschner, et. al., Germany
Assignee: Metallgesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft, Frankfurt
Abstract: A process for producing methanol wherein coal is gasified by a treatment with water vapor and oxygen at elevated temperature, the resulting gas is cooled and is scrubbed with an organic solvent to remove impurities from the gas, the carbon oxides contained in the gas are catalytically reacted with hydrogen to form methanol, and the methanol is separated, the improvement comprises subjecting the residual gas left after the separation of the methanol to a catalytic cracking treatment with water vapor under pressure and at elevated temperature to form hydrogen and carbon oxides and cooling the cracked gas and recycling it to the methanol synthesis.
Claims: A process of producing methanol comprising ... gasifying coal by a counterflow treatment with oxygen and water vapor ... .
Description: This invention relates to a process of producing methanol in which coal is gasified by a treatment with water vapor and oxygen at elevated temperature, the resulting gas is cooled and is scrubbed with an organic solvent to remove impurities from the gas, the carbon oxides contained in the gas are catalytically reacted with hydrogen to form methanol, and the methanol is separated."
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Note that Coal can be gasified "with water vapor", i.e., Steam, in order to generate a fully-hydrogenated synthesis gas suitable for a catalytic process wherein "the carbon oxides ... are catalytically reacted".
Those implications aside, herein is just further evidence that we have officially known, now for what should be an embarrassing amount of time, that we can convert our abundant Coal efficiently into Methanol.
And, aside from the facts that Methanol can be used to make Gasoline and Plastics, it also has other interesting properties that we have reported previously, and which we will, in coming reports, document further:
It is, for instance, a far more effective absorbent of Carbon Dioxide than water, can be used in place of water in CO2 air scrubbers; and, that has important implications for Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies wherein Carbon Dioxide is transformed into liquid hydrocarbons.
Those potentials are disclosed, for one example, in another report, today, concerning "US Patent 7,420,004; Producing Synthetic Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuels; September, 2008; Assignee: The USA"; wherein is disclosed a process for converting Carbon Dioxide, harvested from the environment, via Methanol, into those "Synthetic Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuels".
Not only that, but, as in our report yesterday, among others earlier, of "US Patent 5,266,189 - Integrated Low Severity Alcohol-Base Coal Liquefaction Process; November, 1993; Amoco Corporation", Methanol, once we have it, from any source, can also be made to serve in the hydrogenation and liquefaction of more Coal.