Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information - Sponsored by OSTI
We've documented several times previously that US Department of Energy offices and labs near WVU, in Morgantown, WV, have been responsible for the management and oversight of a number of USDOE-funded efforts across the nation, initiatives focused on the conversion of our abundant Coal into direct replacements for all those products, fuels and others, we now manufacture from dwindling and unreliable petroleum.
Herein, we learn that our USDOE, through Morgantown, contracted with a number of entities, including North Carolina's Research Triangle Institute, Bechtel Corporation, and Eastman Chemical, as represented by scientists at their Kingsport, TN, Coal-to-Methanol facility, to further develop the technologies whereby plastics manufacturing raw materials can be extracted from Coal.
The document we enclose in this dispatch is of a manageable size, so we are attaching the downloaded file, should, as we fear is sometimes the case, the links we enclose not be durable.
Comment follows excerpts from, and additional links to:
"Synthesis of Methyl Methacrylate From Coal-Derived Syngas; 1998
By: Makarand R. Gogate; et. al.
Work Performed Under Contract No.: DE-AC22-94PC94065, (by)
Research Triangle Institute; Research Triangle Park, NC; Eastman Chemical Company, Kingsport, TN; and, Bechtel, San Francisco, CA, and Houston, TX; for:
U.S. Department of Energy; Office of Fossil Energy; Federal Energy Technology Center; Morgantown, WV.
Abstract: Research Triangle Institute (RTI), Eastman Chemical Company, and Bechtel collectively are developing a novel three-step process for the synthesis of methyl methacrylate (MMA) from coal derived syngas that consists of the steps of synthesis of a propionate, its condensation with formaldehyde to form methacrylic acid (MAA), and esterification of MAA with methanol to produce MMA.
Introduction: The most widely practiced commercial technology for the synthesis of methacrylic acid (MAA) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) is the acetone cyanohydrin (ACH) process. The ACH process requires handling of large quantities of extremely toxic and hazardous hydrogen cyanide and generates copious amounts of ammonium sulfate wastes that are either discarded or reclaimed at substantial cost. The ACH technology is currently environmentally and economically untenable for any new expansions, primarily because of the cost of either disposing or regenerating the bisulfate waste.
There is a strong drive within the chemical industry for a replacement process for MMA synthesis (and, the) Research Triangle Institute (RTI)-Eastman-Bechtel research team is developing a novel three-step process for synthesis of methyl methacrylate from coal-derived syngas.
(Note: Making those valuable and needed plastics raw materials from Coal would, it seems, be cleaner, cheaper and safer for the environment than the methods now commercially employed.)
Upon conclusion of the original contract, the RTI-Eastman-Bechtel research team undertook the development of a DME-based process to MMA, as an extension to the three tasks of the original contract. This add-on task was ... termed as DME feedstock evaluation. Under this extension, the RTI-Eastman-Bechtel research team is studying the use of DME, instead of methanol, to generate formaldehyde, either externally or in situ.
The DME-based route can produce MMA in one step, and is possibly a cost-effective alternative to the methanol-based route."
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Both Methanol, which can, via ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r) process, be converted into Gasoline; and, "DME", more formally "dimethyl ether", a serviceable substitute Diesel fuel which can easily be made from Methanol, are synthesized by Eastman Chemical Company, in Kingsport, TN, from Coal.
And, both of those Coal-derived materials, as chemical intermediaries, as herein, can, thus, enable the efficient "Synthesis of" the plastics manufacturing raw material "Methyl Methacrylate" from "Coal-Derived Syngas".
Note, though, that, like many related Coal conversion documents held by our USDOE which we have reported to you, the enclosed is only a "quarterly" report, made 13 years ago, for which we have, as yet, been unable to find a full and final version of.