Liquid process for manufacture of motor fuel
You have to read very closely to discern the facts, but:
All of the by-product Carbon Dioxide generated by the Coal conversion process herein described is recycled back into the synthesis gas generator, to be reacted with more hot Coal and Steam, and with other products of the process, to be thereby converted, in such combined reactions with Coal and Steam, into additional Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide - the components of hydrocarbon synthesis gas from which liquid hydrocarbons are catalytically condensed.
Further, close examination of the schematics reveals some important facts about those combined reactions:
Carbon Dioxide is being reacted with both Steam and Methane, which is also generated by, and collected from within, the process. And, the reaction between CO2, H2O and CH4 is, apparently, being catalyzed and facilitated and increased by the participation in that reaction of hot Coal.
It is, it seems, another early version of the tri-reforming process described most recently by scientists, as we've documented, at Penn State University; and, it mirrors other, similar Carbon Dioxide reforming technologies we have already documented for you as having been developed by some major oil companies near, and immediately after, the end of WWII.
The difference herein is that Coal is participating in the reaction, and the Coal is, through the joint reactions with Steam, Carbon Dioxide and Methane, also being converted into additional hydrocarbon synthesis gas.
All of which has some, we think important, implications; which we attempt to clarify following excerpts from:
"United States Patent 2,264,427 - Process for the Manufacture of Motor Fuel
Date: December 2, 1941
Inventor: Willard Asbury, London
Assignee: Standard Catalytic Company, NJ
Abstract: The present invention relates to the art of producing valuable hydrocarbon fuels from less valuable carbonaceous materials, and more specifically to the improved method for synthetically producing fuels for internal combustion engines.
One object of the present process is to produce a high grade motor fuel or gasoline from waste carbonaceous materials.
(As seen in the schematics) waste hydrocarbon gas is supplied. This may be a ... coal gas (which) is caused to react with steam.
The conversion process results in the decomposition of the hydrocarbon and produces a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide (the relative amount of which may be) decreased by raising the temperature and reducing the amount of excess steam.
Carbon dioxide (from various sources) may be advantageously (made to) enter the converter along with the hydrocarbon gas and steam. The object of this (being) to produce a more favorable ratio of carbon monoxide to hydrogen ... .
(And,) coal ... may be converted with ... a mixture of steam and carbon dioxide to produce the desired (hydrocarbon gas) mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen ... .
Claims: An improved process for manufacturing motor fuel comprising the step of directly reacting carbon monoxide and hydrogen ... "
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And, we summarize: Such "carbon monoxide and hydrogen", which can be so utilized in the invention's "improved process for manufacturing motor fuel", is generated, in the invention's "conversion process", by reactions between "coal" and a "mixture of steam and carbon dioxide".
As we read it, and we believe our interpretation to be accurate, the introduction of extraneous Carbon Dioxide, from outside the system, into the synthesis gas generator not only provides for the production of additional Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide, but also serves to inhibit the generation of additional Carbon Dioxide from reactions between the Coal and the Steam.
Further, in reference to our introductory comments relating to Penn State University's "tri-reforming" technology: Based on the schematics and on the full Disclosure, it is clear that Methane can, as well, be added to the mix of Carbon Dioxide and Steam that is reacted initially with Coal to form such a "desired ... mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen".
Although the inventor notes that some Methane is also generated within the process itself, and can be recovered and turned to such use, we remind you, that, as the British inventor would have been aware, Europe's Nobel Committee awarded it's 1912 Prize in Chemistry to France's Paul Sabatier, for demonstrating that Carbon Dioxide could be converted into Methane.
In any case, we have herein a formal document, issued by our own United States Government while the Japanese fleet was steaming into position in the Pacific Ocean, clearly stating, and affirming, that "coal" and a "mixture of steam and carbon dioxide" can all be reacted together and made to form a "desired mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen"; a combination of gasses which can then be used in an "improved process for manufacturing motor fuel".