We've documented many times that Coal can be converted into, among other needed things, Diesel fuel.
A recent example of such reportage would be:
Germany Coal + Methane = Diesel Fuel | Research & Development | News; wherein it is seen that Methane, which can, as documented in just one instance by our earlier report of:
Chicago Recycles CO2 to Methane | Research & Development | News; be synthesized from Carbon Dioxide, can be utilized to help the conversion of Coal into Diesel fuel along.
Interestingly, we think, in the Mobil Oil Coal-to-Diesel technology we document in this dispatch, although Methane isn't needed, the Diesel fuel is posited to be made from a "light fuel oil" that has already been made "by the direct liquefaction of coal".
Comment follows excerpts the initial link in this dispatch to:
"United States Patent 4,447,312 - Improving the Diesel Fuel Quality of Coal Derived Liquids
Date: May, 1984
Inventor: Phillip Angevine, et. al., NJ and PA
Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation, NY
Abstract: A process for preparing diesel fuel from coal-derived light fuel oils by alkylating said coal-derived light fuel oils with olefins and hydrotreating said alkylated product.
Claims: A process for improving the quality of light fuel oil derived by the direct liquefaction of coal having a low cetane number, said process comprising the steps of: (i) contacting said light fuel oil liquid with an olefin having at least three carbon atoms under alkylation conditions.
(And) wherein said direct liquefaction of coal is at least one process of hydrogenation, destructive distillation, pyrolysis in the absence of hydrogen, or solvent extraction.
A process for improving the quality of a light fuel oil having a boiling range of about 380F to about 700F and having a cetane number of about 7 to 10 which light fuel oil was derived by the direct liquefaction of coal which process comprises reacting said light fuel oil with a olefin ... whereby to produce a fuel oil having a cetane number of about 30 to 70.
Background and Summary: This invention relates to a process for improving the quality of coal-derived liquids and more particularly to a process for improving the diesel fuel quality of coal-derived liquids.
The supply of domestic petroleum stocks, in comparison with demand, has been declining over the years. The need for a supplemental source of liquid hydrocarbon fuels is becoming clearly apparent. Domestic coal deposits appear to provide one such source for such hydrocarbon fuels.
Coal derived liquids are those liquids derived from coal by a variety of processes ... .
The production of gasoline from coal-derived liquids is well known in the art. In fact, current process schemes, in the liquefaction of coal, emphasize gasoline as the major liquid product.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,018,241, 3,018,242, 3,117,921, 3,143,489, and 3,700,586 are representative of such processes.
Recently, in addition to gasoline, there has been high demand for diesel fuel. However, because an acceptable cetane number distillate is difficult to achieve without very high hydrogen costs, the production of acceptable fuels from coal-derived liquids has not been, until the present invention, a feasible alternate route to diesel fuel production."
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Well, we don't know about all of that. The evidence, as available in the West Virginia Coal Association R&D archives, is clear that Germany and Japan were making both Gasoline and Diesel out of Coal during WWII.
Further, we must note that we have abbreviated our excerpts in the extreme. The Mobil Disclosure, we think tellingly, centers on a discussion of what we must presume to be established petroleum refining techniques, that are well beyond our scope, as they can be applied to "liquids derived from coal".
It is interesting, though, that, more than one quarter of a century ago, Mobil, as above, was able to cite such an extensive body of prior Coal liquefaction science.
As they put it, the "production of gasoline from coal-derived liquids" was, by then, already "well known".
We have to ask, yet again:
Why isn't such knowledge, concerning the "production of gasoline from coal-derived liquids", so seemingly well-established among oil industry insiders so long ago, yet the subject of open and on-going discussion among the apparently-unaware public of US Coal Country, and, their journalists and elected representatives?