We continue, herein, to document the USDOE-sponsored development of Coal liquefaction technologies at the Allentown, PA, "International Coal Refining", ICR, pilot plant, which was established and operated by a joint venture that included Pennsylvania's Air Products and Chemicals Company; and, which resulted in a cascade of Coal liquefaction technical developments that continued, as we will see in future reports, even after the Coal conversion pilot plant itself ceased operation.
Most recently, via: USDOE Pays for PA Fuel Oil from Coal Liquefaction | Research & Development | News; wherein is detailed: "USP 4,547,201 - SRC Residual Fuel Oils;1985"; we learned that International Coal Refining Company scientists, under contract to the USDOE, had developed a process for combining "deashed solvent refined coal ... with ... a coal liquefaction process solvent" to manufacture "fuel oils" that were "uniquely stable over long periods".
In any case, that patented technology was closely related to other Coal conversion innovations being established at the same time in ICR's Allentown facility, as witness excerpts, with brief comment appended, from our initial link in this dispatch to:
US Patent 4,534,847 - Producing Low-Sulfur Boiler Fuel by Hydrotreatment of Deashed SRC
Date: August, 1985
Inventor: George Roberts and John Tao, PA
Assignee: International Coal Refining Company, Allentown
Abstract: In this invention, a process is disclosed characterized by heating a slurry of coal in the presence of a process-derived recycle solvent and passing same to a dissolver zone, separating the resultant gases and liquid/solid products therefrom, vacuum distilling the liquid/solids products, separating the portions of the liquid/solids vacuum distillation effluent into a solid ash, unconverted coal particles and SRC material having a boiling point above 850F and subjecting same to a critical solvent deashing step to provide an ash-free SRC product. The lighter liquid products from the vacuum distillation possess a boiling point below 850F and are passed through a distillation tower, from which recycled solvent is recovered in addition to light distillate boiling below 400F. The ash-free SRC product in accompanyment with at least a portion of the process derived solvent is passed in combination to a hydrotreating zone containing a hydrogenation catalyst and in the presence of hydrogen is hydroprocessed to produce a desulfurized and denitrogenized low-sulfur, low-ash boiler fuel and a process derived recycle solvent which is recycled to slurry the coal in the beginning of the process before heating.
(Note, again, as with many other, more "direct", Coal liquefaction technologies, such as WVU's "West Virginia Process", we have documented for you, a "solvent" can be derived from Coal in the conversion process itself, and then be used for the dissolution of more raw Coal.)
Government Interests: The Government of the United States of America has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. DE-AC05-780R03054 (as modified) awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Claims: An improved process for producing a substantially ash-free, low-sulfur solid boiler fuel by hydrotreating deashed solvent refined coal wherein hydrogen consumption and the occurrence of coking in said hydrotreating step are minimized.
Description: This invention relates to coal conversion from high-sulfur, high-ash mined coal into low-sulfur, low-ash synthetic fuel by a direct liquefaction process. In particular, the invention provides an improved process for producing a low-sulfur, low-ash boiler fuel.
In accordance with the present invention, solvent deashed SRC may be blended with process derived solvent and mildly hydrotreated to produce a low-sulfur, low-ash boiler fuel.
In a variation of the ... process ..., a portion of the product slurry is recycled as a "solvent" for the coal rather than using an all-distillate liquid as in the original SRC-I process. In addition to dissolving the coal, the SRC-II process also converts much of the dissolved coal to distillate liquid and gaseous products. The major liquid product is separated in a vacuum distillation unit, the undistilled 850F+ product which is termed "vacuum residue", is fed to a gasifier for hydrogen production.
In theory, the quantity of organic material remaining in the vacuum residue is controlled so that it is just sufficient to produce the hydrogen required for the process."
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We close our excerpts here since it is again confirmed, in the passage immediately above, as in a number of our earlier reports, that:
Any Hydrogen required for hydrogenating the carbonaceous liquids derived from Coal, to convert them into genuine Hydrocarbons suitable as direct replacements for anything we now derive from natural petroleum, can be generated within, as one function of, the total Coal conversion process.
It is also again confirmed, as in the statement: "The Government of the United States of America has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. DE-AC05-780R03054 (as modified) awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy", that: