We've previously cited Pittsburgh's Koppers Company, and the Koppers scientist named as the inventor in the United States Patent for Coal gasification technology we report in this dispatch.
An example would be: Pittsburgh Company Coal Conversion Technology | Research & Development; which reports: "'Economics of the Koppers Gasification Process for Synthetic Gas and Chemical Manufacture';
John F. Kamody and J. Frank Cannon; Koppers Company, Inc.; Pittsburgh, PA; The commercially proven Koppers K-T gasification process is employed for the gasification of coal and other carbonaceous fuels to produce a carbon monoxide and hydrogen rich gas (i.e., "syngas")".
Via the US Patent we enclose herein, we document that Koppers further developed their Coal gasification technology so that, rather than producing a mixture of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, along with some unwanted Carbon Dioxide, the process could be ordered so as to produce only and mainly Carbon Monoxide, with plain old Water and Methane gas being the primary by-products; but, with very little or no Carbon Dioxide, or Hydrogen.
All of that has implications pertinent to Coal conversion and Coal liquefaction, which we attempt to explain, following excerpts from:
"US Patent 4,265,868 - Production of Carbon Monoxide by the Gasification of Carbonaceous Materials
Date: May, 1981
Inventor: John Kamody, Irwin, PA
Assignee: Kopppers Company, Incorporated, Pittsburgh
Abstract: An increased amount of carbon monoxide is produced in a process for the gasification of carbonaceous materials by employing a reverse water gas shift reaction in the process. Raw gas produced by the gasification of carbonaceous materials contains predominantly carbon monoxide and hydrogen along with hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, water and methane. Carbon dioxide is separated from the raw gas as is the hydrogen sulfide. Thereafter, the carbon monoxide is separated from the raw gas to yield one portion of the carbon monoxide product gas. After the removal of carbon monoxide the raw gas consists of a hydrogen-rich gas. The hydrogen-rich gas which may be purified is mixed with the previously separated carbon dioxide along with any imported carbon dioxide and along with a recycle gas from a catalytic reaction loop. This mixed gas is conveyed to a heat exchanger in the catalytic reaction loop and passed through a heat exchanger located immediately after the gasifier through which the raw product gas passes. In the heat exchanger the hot raw product gas indirectly contacts the mixed gas and transfers some of its sensible heat to the mixed gas to effect the catalytically promoted, endothermic reaction of carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce a carbon monoxide-containing gas. The indirect contacting for heat exchange is conducted in a manner that limits the accumulation of elemental carbon from any of the carbon-containing components of the mixed gas. The carbon monoxide is separated from the other components of the carbon monoxide-containing gas to yield a second portion of carbon monoxide gas which is then combined with the first portion of carbon monoxide product gas to give the increased amount of carbon monoxide product gas.
(Note: This Koppers process is so effective and efficient, and so productive of Hydrogen for internal use, that it can utilize additional "imported carbon dioxide", apparently from an external source, for consumption in their specified "reverse water gas shift reaction", which makes more Carbon Monoxide. - JtM)
Claims: A process for producing increased amounts of a carbon monoxide-rich gas in the gasification of carbonaceous materials, comprising: reacting the carbonaceous materials with a gasifying entraining medium selected from the group comprising ... oxygen and steam; oxygen and carbon dioxide; oxygen, carbon dioxide, and steam; oxygen and water; oxygen (and/or) water and carbon dioxide ... to produce raw gases containing predominantly carbon monoxide and hydrogen, along with carbon dioxide, water, hydrogen sulfide, and methane ... .
(Note, further: In addition to using "imported carbon dioxide" in the subsequent "reverse water gas shift reaction", this Koppers system, designed to produce Carbon Monoxide, can also use, we extrapolate, even more such "imported carbon dioxide" for the initial Coal gasification, as in, immediately above: "reacting the carbonaceous materials with a gasifying entraining medium selected from the group comprising ... oxygen and carbon dioxide; oxygen, carbon dioxide, and steam".)
(And) separating and collecting carbon monoxide, as a first portion of the carbon monoxide-rich gas product, and hydrogen from the treated, cooled raw gas in different zones;
(And) combining the separated and collected hydrogen with carbon dioxide to form a gas containing predominantly carbon dioxide and hydrogen (and contacting that mixed gas) with a water gas shift reaction catalyst (to effect the) reaction between carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce (more) carbon monoxide;
(And) combining said carbon monoxide with the first portion of carbon monoxide previously collected to produce a carbon monoxide-rich gas.
The foregoing has described a process for the gasification of carbonaceous materials where the yield of carbon monoxide is increased.
This increased yield is accomplished in an efficient, safe, and economical manner and provides a carbon monoxide-rich gas for ... chemical feedstock applications."
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First of all, please be aware of the fact that the "reverse water gas shift reaction", or "RWGS", specified herein by Koppers in their Abstract, is different from the "water gas shift reaction", or "WGS".
We have earlier described both in other reports.
Briefly, and in sum: The RWGS consumes Carbon Dioxide and results in the production of Carbon Monoxide and Water; while the WGS consumes Carbon Monoxide and results in the production of Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen.
Both reactions are, we would think obviously, relevant to considerations of Carbon conversion technologies.
Further, once again make note of the fact that the use of Steam and/or Water for the initial Coal gasification, in confirmation of many of our earlier reports, makes that gasification so productive of Hydrogen that additional sources of Carbon, specifically Carbon Dioxide, can be imported into the system, for consumption in the "reverse water gas shift reaction" and the production of additional Carbon Monoxide.
But, also note that even more Carbon Dioxide, imported from whatever source, can, as well, as in "reacting the carbonaceous materials with a gasifying entraining medium selected from ... oxygen (and/or) water and carbon dioxide", be utilized and consumed in the initial Coal gasification.
However, again in this case, the end product isn't a hydrocarbon synthesis gas, a blend of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen suitable for catalytic condensation, as via the Fischer-Tropsch process, or similar, into various hydrocarbons; or, as in the initial statement of claims, Methane; but, since the produced Hydrogen is utilized in the consumption and chemical reduction of supplemental Carbon Dioxide through the RWGS, the end product is primarily Carbon Monoxide.
We emphasize, of course, that any by-product Methane which might be generated could, as the Disclosure does seem to suggest, be reclaimed from the mix of gases resulting from the Coal gasification, prior to the further processing of those other product gases.
If so, that recovered by-product Methane could, as in another, much earlier, Pittsburgh and Koppers-invented process, seen via:
Pittsburgh 1941 CO2 + Methane = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development | News; which discloses: "US Patent 2,266,989 - Manufacture of a Gas from CO2 and Methane; 1941; Assignee: Koppers Company, Pittsburgh, PA; Abstract: The present invention relates to the manufacture of gases suitable for the synthesis of higher hydrocarbons ... by reacting on methane ... with carbon dioxide";
be reacted with even more Carbon Dioxide, recovered, perhaps, from an Iron City(r) brewery, and be made thereby to generate even more syngas "suitable for the synthesis of higher hydrocarbons".
And, since, as in the Abstract of our subject US Patent 4,265,868, some Hydrogen Sulfide, H2S, depending, we submit, on the grade of Coal utilized, might be generated, we further submit that such H2S could, as in:
Exxon Methane and Hydrogen from H2S and Carbon Monoxide | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,517,171 - Synthesis of H2 and CH4 from H2S and CO; 1985; Assignee: Exxon Research and Engineering Company; Abstract: Hydrogen and methane are synthesized from a gaseous feed comprising a mixture of H2S and CO";
be reacted with some of the Carbon Monoxide, made from Coal and Carbon Dioxide via the process of USP 4,265,868, to make even more Methane, for use in the process of USP 2,266,989, to react with even more Carbon Dioxide and to thereby synthesize even more "higher hydrocarbons".
However, since Carbon Monoxide is the primary end product of gasifying Coal, in part, with CO2, and, by further reacting the product gases with even more CO2, as in our subject process of US Patent 4,265,868, we remind you that, as in:
Pittsburgh 1951 Carbon Monoxide + Water = Hydrocarbons | Research & Development; which makes report of: "US Patent 2,579,663 - Process of Synthesizing Hydrocarbons; 1951; Assignee: Gulf Research and Development Company, Pittsburgh, PA; Abstract: This invention relates to a process for synthesizing hydrocarbons; more particularly the invention relates to a process for synthesizing normally liquid hydrocarbons from carbon monoxide and steam";
we have known, or should have known, in one of the very hearts of US Coal Country, for more than half a century, that we can react Carbon Monoxide - - perhaps now made, via the process of US Patent 4,265,868, from Coal and Carbon Dioxide - - with nothing but plain old H2O, and thereby manufacture "normally liquid hydrocarbons".