In the course of our reportage, we have made frequent reference to, and documented the reality of, ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r), Methanol-To-Gasoline, technology, wherein the Methanol is posited to be made from Coal.
As we have noted, catalyst formulations based on zeolite minerals are key to that process.
Herein, we learn that ExxonMobil's Coal conversion technology might, actually, only be derivative of similar technology first developed in West Virginia.
We have documented multiple times the fact that the old Union Carbide Corporation, since assimilated into Dow Chemical, operated, for a period of some years, a Coal hydrogenation and liquefaction facility in South Charleston, WV.
Via the enclosed United States Patent, we see that one of Carbide's West Virginia scientists established, fully one quarter of a century ago, the fact that Coal can be converted into Methanol, and, the fact that, by using zeolite mineral catalysts, such Coal-derived Methanol can be further converted into Gasoline.
Comment follows excerpts from the enclosed link to:
"United States Patent 4,499,327 - Production of Light Olefins
Date: February, 1985
Inventor: Steven Kaiser, South Charleston, WV
Assignee: Union Carbide Corporation, CT
Abstract: The process for the production of light olefins from a feedstock comprising methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether, diethyl ether or mixtures thereof comprising contacting said feedstock with a silicoaluminophosphate molecular sieve at effective process conditions to produce light olefins.
Claims: The process of making light olefins containing 2 to 4 carbon atoms which comprises contacting a feedstock comprising one or more of methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether, diethyl ether and mixtures thereof with a silicoaluminophosphate molecular sieve (as specified).
The process ... wherein said feedstock contains diluent (and) wherein said diluent is water.
The process ... wherein the feedstock consists essentially of methanol and water.
Field and Background: As a result of the limited availability and high cost of petroleum sources the cost of producing chemicals from such petroleum sources has been steadily increasing. Further, many in the chemical industry, as well as elsewhere, have raised the dire prediction of significant oil shortages in the not too distant future. As a result, the search for an alternative, low cost and more readily available raw material for chemical synthesis has been intense with the ultimate goal being the derivation of valuable chemical products from non-petroleum sources.
Such readily available sources are methanol, ethanol and their derivatives which may be manufactured from non-petroleum sources such as by fermentation or from synthesis gas, i.e. a mixture of oxides of carbon and hydrogen.
Synthesis gas may be derived by the combustion of any carbonaceous material including coal.
Thus, the use of methanol and its derivatives to form chemical products is particularly desirable in providing such a non-petroleum based route. The manufacture of methanol from synthesis gas by a heterogeneous catalytic reaction is presently an efficient commercial process.
(Note, again, that: Fully one quarter of a century ago, the "manufacture of methanol from" Coal-derived "synthesis gas" was already "an efficient commercial process".)
It has been discovered that by use of silicoaluminophosphate molecular sieves as the catalyst(s) for the conversion of such a feedstock that, in general, higher feedstock conversions and selectivities ... may be obtained ... .
It has also been discovered that by use of specific silicoaluminophosphate molecular sieves that ... selectivity to C2 to C4 olefin products (i.e., ethylene, propylene, and butenes) ... . (The) selectivity to such olefin products may be in excess of 75 mole percent when specific silicoaluminophosphate molecular sieves are employed.
(Yes, "ethylene, propylene, and butenes" can be used in Gasoline blending stock; and, they are also valuable raw materials for the production of certain useful and commercially-valuable plastics.)
Further, high molar conversions i.e., perferably at least about 70 percent and most preferably at least about 90 percent ... may be obtained while forming a minimum molar amount of methane.
(Note, as above, that Methane can be generated as a by-product of this Coal-derived Methanol-to-Gasoline process; and, recall that such Methane can be utilized in reforming processes, such as explained, as we've documented, by scientists at Penn State University, wherein it is reacted with Carbon Dioxide, reclaimed from whatever source, and made thereby to form additional liquid hydrocarbons.)
This invention comprises a process for the catalytic conversion of a feedstock comprising one or more of methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether, diethyl ether or mixtures thereof to a hydrocarbon product ... ."
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And, again, the "methanol" which can, as herein, be converted into "hydrocarbon product", as confirmed more than twenty-five years ago by a West Virginia scientist and the US Government's Patent Office, can be made "from synthesis gas (in) an efficient commercial process", and that the "synthesis gas" itself can be obtained from "any carbonaceous material including", specifically and especially, "coal".