We submit herein yet more confirmation of the fact that Coal can, with perhaps surprising efficiency, be converted into Methane gas.
That fact has some implications which should, if you have followed our posts thus far, have some portent for you relative not only to the profitable - to some privileged few - myth that hydrocarbon fuels are in short supply and the costs of them thus must keep going up, but, as well, to the now-obvious, and obviously deliberately-fostered, fallacy that Carbon Dioxide is nothing more than a dangerous waste which must somehow, perhaps through Geologic Sequestration, at great expense to our vital Coal-use industries and their customers, but at great benefit to Oil producers engaged in the secondary scrounging of last Petroleum dregs from natural reservoirs, be disposed of.
Via separate dispatch today, as we note in concluding comments, we are providing yet more documentation regarding the Carbon Dioxide fallacy, which does relate to the Coal technology disclosed herein by Exxon.
In any case, deep within the bowels of Exxon's full Disclosure, we find statement that the Coal gasification system they have invented, if employed according to it's full design, would enable us:
"(To) effectively utilize as high as about 95 to 99%, and higher, of the feed carbon fed to the main gasification zone, or gasifier".
In other words, virtually all of the Carbon content in the "feed" Coal will be consumed in the production of, essentially, Methane.
Which implies, by the way, that virtually no Coal is lost to the co-production of Carbon Dioxide.
And, we must explain that Methane is the end product of this process.
You will find discussion herein of a co-produced mixture of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide; a synthesis gas, in other words, which could, we submit, be directed to Fischer-Tropsch catalysis and condensation into liquid hydrocarbons; thus resulting in the co-production of both liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels from this Exxon process.
Exxon, however, directs that the hot syngas, collected with the Methane, be separated and recycled back into the system to take part in the gasification of more Coal.
Such internal recycling, along with secondary gasification of Char, leads, ultimately, as noted above, to the conversion of "95 to 99%" of the original Carbon content of the feed material, Coal, into Methane.
With apologies for the lengthy preamble, brief comment, and an additional reference, follow excerpts from the link to:
"United States Patent 4,077,778 - Process for the Catalytic Gasification of Coal
Date: March, 1978
Inventors: Nicholas Nahas, NJ, and Charles Vadovic, TX
Assignee: Exxon Research and Engineering Company, NJ
Abstract: A process for the production of synthetic natural gas from a carbon-alkali metal catalyst or alkali-metal impregnated carbonaceous feed, particularly coal, by reaction of said feed with water (steam) in the presence of a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide (both made within the system, as noted above, from Coal and Water - JtM), in a series of staged fluidized bed gasification reactors (or gasification zones). The first reactor, or main reactor, of the series is operated as an entrainment reactor and entrained solids are carried over to the second reactor, or reactors, of the series. A carbonaceous feed, or coal, is thus partially gasified in a fluidized bed in the main reactor to form a product gas and a char, and char is entrained within the effluent gases, separated therefrom and then fed into the secondary gasification reactor, or reactors, of the series, the entrained char constituting feed to a secondary reactor, or reactors. Some char is also passed via dense phase transfer from the main reactor to the secondary reactor to maintain catalyst balance. More effective ultilization of the feed carbon is possible by use of the reactor system operated in such a manner than is possible by the sole use of the main reactor, even when the latter is operated at the same or at more optimum conversion conditions.
Claims: (A) process for the production of synthetic natural gas by the conversion of a solid carbonaceous feed, in the presence of a carbon-alkali catalyst, by contact of said feed in a gasification zone containing a fluidized bed of char, with steam and a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases added to said zone.
(Recovering) a gaseous effluent from (the) secondary gasification zone and recovering synthetic natural gas consisting essentially of methane and a synthesis gas comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide, from said gaseous effluent, recycling the recovered synthesis gases as the hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases supplied to the main and secondary gasification zones ... .
Background: Fuel oil and natural gas shortages have sparked renewed world-wide interest in the development of processes that can produce clean synthetic natural gas, or gas or pipeline quality, from carbonaceous solids, particularly coal.
Various processes, both thermal and catalytic, are known for the gasification of coal to produce pipeline quality gas. In gasification processes of these types, raw gas mixtures are produced which include hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane. Since methane, the desired high BTU component, cannot normally be directly produced within the gaseous product in adequate concentrations to provide a pipeline quality gas, the raw gases are upgraded in separate downstream reactors, and processing units to produce additional methane.
It is a specific object of this invention to provide a staged catalytic coal gasification process, particularly a two-stage gasification process, for the more effective gasification and utilization of the carbon content of a carbonaceous feed.
Another object is to provide a further improved coal gasification process ... .
These and other objects are achieved in accordance with the present invention, characterized as a process for the production of synthetic natural gas from a carbon-alkali metal catalyst or alkali-metal impregnated carbonaceous feed, particularly coal, by reaction of said feed with water (steam) in the presence of a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, in a series of staged fluidized bed gasification zones, inclusive of a main gasification zone, or zones, wherein the carbonaceous feed, or coal, is partially gasified in a fluidized bed to form a product gas and a char, and char is entrained within the effluent gases, separated therefrom and then fed into a subsequent or secondary gasification zone, or zones ... .
(Our full read of it indicates that the "secondary gasification zone" is where the Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, used as additives in the initial gasification zone, along with Steam, are generated.)
Within the process more effective utilization of the feed carbon, based on total weight of feed carbon to the main gasification zone, or zones, is possible ... .
In accordance with this invention, it has been found feasible to effectively utilize as high as about 95 to 99%, and higher, of the feed carbon fed to the main gasification zone, or gasifier."
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In other words, essentially the entire Carbon content of Coal, everything but the inert mineral ash, can be converted into Methane.
And, as you will see in our separate dispatch, today, concerning: "United States Patent 2,266,989"; as accessible via:
we have known, in one of the very hearts of US Coal Country, since 1941, that Carbon Dioxide, reclaimed from whatever source, can be reacted with Methane, as herein produced so efficiently by Exxon from Coal, and the two gases made thereby to synthesize hydrocarbon fuels.