Not only Methane, but an appreciable amount of liquid fuel, in the form of Benzene, as well, can be manufactured by the Steam-Coal Hydro-Gasification process our USDOE saw fit to pay a California aerospace and defense contractor to develop.
Within the Disclosure, we find even further confirmation of an important point that we have many times documented from other sources, which is:
The Hydrogen needed, to hydrogenate Coal's primarily Carbon content, and to thereby convert Coal into hydrocarbons, can be extracted from H2O, in the form of Steam, introduced into various stages of a Coal gasification process.
There are further implications, as well, for this exclusive and effectively-secret technology our public money paid to develop.
As we emphasize, following excerpts from:
"United States Patent 4,597,776 - Hydropyrolysis Process
Date: July, 1986
Inventor: Alan Ullman, et. al., CA
Assignee: Rockwell International Corporation
The Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract (or Grant) No. DE-AT21-78ET10328 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Abstract: An improved process for producing a methane-enriched gas wherein a hydrogen-deficient carbonaceous material is treated with a hydrogen-containing pyrolysis gas at an elevated temperature and pressure to produce a product gas mixture including methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
A controlled amount of steam ... is provided which when combined with the recycle gas provides a pyrolysis gas for treatment of additional hydrogen-deficient carbonaceous material. The amount of steam used (is)
controlled to obtain a steady-state composition of pyrolysis gas which will comprise hydrogen as the principal constituent and a minor amount of carbon monoxide, steam and methane so that no external source of hydrogen is needed to supply the hydrogen requirements of the process.
In accordance with a particularly preferred embodiment, conditions are controlled such that there also is produced a significant quantity of benzene as a valuable coproduct.
(Note, as we have in earlier reports documented, "BTX", a blend of Benzene, as above, with Toluene and Xylene, is a preferred starting composition from which petroleum refiners blend Gasoline.)
A process for producing methane and benzene by reacting a hydrogen-deficient carbonaceous material with a hydrogen-containing pyrolysis gas having a composition selected and controlled so that no external source of hydrogen is needed to provide the hydrogen requirements for the overall process.
(Note further: No external source of hydrogen is needed. That is, we assure you, in the grand scheme of things, economically important.)
(And) wherein said hydrogen-deficient carbonaceous material is coal."
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That seems a fitting last word with which to conclude our excerpts.
As documented herein, we can synthesize both Methane and Benzene via what is, in essence, the Steam gasification of Coal.
Benzene is a component of Gasoline blending stock.
And Methane, as in, for just one example out of now many, our recent report of:
US Navy 1982 CO2 + CH4 = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development | News;
can be combined and reacted with Carbon Dioxide, reclaimed from whatever source, and both of them converted through that reaction into a Hydrogen-Carbon Monoxide synthesis gas suitable for catalytic condensation into liquid hydrocarbons.
Again, our US "Government has", i.e., We the People, supposedly, have, "rights in this invention", which our tax money financed.
Our "rights", apparently, at least as far as the Coal Country public is concerned, don't extend to the privilege of even learning that Coal can, indeed, as herein, be efficiently converted into valuable hydrocarbons.