In one or two previous reports, such as:
USDOE Evaluates Coal Hydrogasification Processes | Research & Development; concerning: "Analysis of coal hydrogasification processes; 1978; DOE Contract: EF-77-A-01-2565; Research Organization: Bechtel Corp., San Francisco, CA; Abstract: Bechtel Corporation has conducted a program to investigate the operability potential and scaleup feasibility of the Cities Service, Rocketdyne, Pittsburgh Energy Research Center (PERC), and Brookhaven National Laboratory coal hydrogasification processes. ... The hydrogasification stage has a configuration similar to the Rocketdyne reactor assembly";
we've made note of the development of Coal conversion technology by the California aerospace technology firm, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, whose Coal hydrogasifiers are based on rocket engine technology.
Pratt & Whitney are now a component of defense contractor United Technologies Corporation; and, more about them can be learned via:
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; wherein we're told, among other things:
"Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) is a United States company that designs and produces rocket engines that use liquid propellants. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, headquartered in Canoga Park, California, is (now) a wholly owned subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation."
Review of the literature indicates that the "Rocketdyne reactor assembly" for Coal hydrogasification, which found favor, as above, with the USDOE, is actually based on their rocket engine technology; and, is thus compact, efficient in operation, and even amenable to "portable" applications.
In the following excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch, with additional links and excerpts appended, Rocketdyne themselves describe their space-age Coal conversion technology, and, in confirmation of now many previous reports attesting to the fact we've brought to your attention, clearly state that Carbon Dioxide, recovered from whatever source, can be utilized, in conjunction with Steam, as an agent of Coal gasification, to help convert Coal into a hydrocarbon synthesis gas blend of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, which can then be catalytically condensed into various hydrocarbons:
"United States Patent 7,402,188 - Method and Apparatus for Coal Gasifier
Date: July, 2008
Inventor: Kenneth Sprouse, California
Assignee: Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Canoga Park, CA
Abstract: A method and apparatus for efficiently forming a gaseous material from a solid starting material. The produced gaseous material (has) a ... high percentage of an original (high heating value) of the starting material. The gaseous product may be used to form a plurality of materials for various purposes.
Claims: A system to produce a gaseous product from a solid starting material, comprising: a first gasification subsystem; a second gasification subsystem; and a pump system connected in parallel and in series with the first gasification subsystem and the second gasification subsystem ... .
The system ... wherein the starting material comprises at least one of coal, ... char, (or) previously processed coal ... .
The system ... wherein ... water (is) to be provided to at least one of said first gasification subsystem or said second gasification subsystem to assist in the gasification of the solid starting material.
The system ... wherein said slurry (feed) material includes gaseous carbon dioxide.
The system ... further comprising: a synthesis subsystem operable to form a selected product ... .
Background and Field: The present disclosure relates generally to processing coal, and particularly to forming a selected material from a coal precursor.
Since electricity and electrically powered systems are becoming ubiquitous, it has become increasingly desirable to find sources of power. For example, various systems may convert directly various petrochemical compounds into electrical energy. Further, petrochemical compounds are used to create various materials, such as steam, which are used to drive steam powered turbines.
Various petrochemical compounds and forms, such as coal ... may be used to power various systems or produce heat to create steam. Various sources of certain compounds are expensive or difficult to extract and require complex machinery to process. Therefore, it is desirable to provide systems that are operable to produce various compounds, either synthetics of generally known compounds or alternatives thereto to produce the selected heat energy or electrical energy.
Summary: The present disclosure relates to a system to gasify coal in a gasification process that provides for an efficient transfer of a coal heating value to a gas of similar heating value (which) may include hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide and other compounds.
The hydrogen and carbon monoxide gas, may be used for various purposes, such as synthesizing selected petrochemicals, hydrocarbons, and the like."
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Our final excerpted statement is appended by Pratt & Whitney within the full Disclosure almost as an afterthought, since their primary focus seems to be only on just the technical production of a gas that retains nearly all of the heating value, i.e., energy content, of the original Coal.
And, such high-efficiency Coal conversion technology wasn't lost on our USDOE, who, through their Morgantown, West Virginia, office and labs, participated in its development, as witnessed via:
"Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne/DOE Advanced Single-Stage Gasification Development Program
Steven P. Fusselman, Kenneth M. Sprouse, and Alan K. Darby; The Boeing Company, Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power;
Jenny Tennant; Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory; Morgantown, WV
This paper describes the Advanced Gasification Systems Development (AGSD) program, a Cooperative Agreement between the Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power division of the Boeing Company and the Department of Energy (DOE). This paper describes the technical basis for the expected improvements in gasifier characteristics, provides an overview of AGSD program plans, and presents estimated commercial benefits of AGSD technology.
The Rocketdyne gasifier is an oxygen-blown, dry-feed, plug-flow entrained reactor able to achieve carbon conversions approaching 100 percent. The gasifier uses Rocketdyne rocket engine technology to enable a compact, long-life, efficient gasifier that increases performance and availability while decreasing capital costs.
The dry feed system, rapid mix injector, and cooled refractory liner are expected to enable the gasifier to process all ranks of coal.
Preliminary economic analysis has shown (that) AGSD gasifier technology could reduce Cost of Electricity by 15% to 20% relative to current gasifier technologies, with >10% reduction in plant capital cost per kW and a 50% reduction in gasifier capital cost.
Similar cost-of-product benefits (also based on a preliminary economic analysis) are anticipated for hydrogen production.
The Rocketdyne gasifier is expected to accommodate all ranks of coal, including lignite (and) gasifier kinetics modeling indicates that >99% conversion can be attained for all ranks of coal ... ."
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We note that Pratt & Whitney had actually acquired Rocketdyne from another well-known high-tech aerospace firm, Boeing, indicated as the owners of "Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power" in the above USDOE report, not long before issuance of United States Patent 7,402,188, as seen in:
Boeing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; "On August 2, 2005, Boeing sold its Rocketdyne rocket engine division to Pratt & Whitney".
And, somewhat sadly, their highly-efficient Coal conversion technology didn't go unnoticed by Big Oil, since, at some time, they got roped into:
ExxonMobil Working with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne to Develop Advanced Gasification Technology | Business Wire; wherein we're told, concerning the Exxon-Pratt & Whitney partnership:
“Gasification technology has the potential to help with many of our most pressing energy challenges and we are pleased to be involved in this important project,”said Rich Pisarczyk, president of ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. “Turning coal and similar energy sources into synthesis gas would allow these sources to be converted into a range of products, including chemicals, transportation fuels and power plant feedstock."
Even more can be learned about the Rocketdyne-Exxon Coal gasification partnership via:
http://www.gasification.org/uploads/downloads/Conferences/2009/39DARBY.pdf; which presentation reveals:
"Compact Gasification System Development Status - Leveraging 50 Years of Rocket Engine Experience to Reduce Cost and Improve Plant Performance
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne teamed with ExxonMobil Research and Engineering (EMRE) to develop and commercialize the technology (and:)
DOE is cost-sharing development (to achieve) 90% size reduction (of the gasifier); 50% lower cost (of the total gasification system); 99% availability (and) 99% carbon conversion."
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And, even though Pratt & Whitney envisioned use of their "entrained flow" Coal gasifier mostly for the production of a synthesis gas that could be used in power generation applications, with it's employment in making, from Coal, "the starting material for synthesizing selected petrochemicals, hydrocarbons, and the like" only a seeming afterthought, their partners, ExxonMobil, saw, and see, it otherwise, as we previously documented, concerning the development of such Coal gasifiers and their use in synthesizing liquid hydrocarbon fuels, in:
Exxon Co-Gasifies Coal and Carbon-Recycling Biomass | Research & Development; wherein is detailed:
"US Patent Application 20100083575 - Co-gasification Process for Hydrocarbon Solids and Biomass; 2010; Assignee: ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, NJ; Abstract: A process for the co-gasification of carbonaceous solids (coal) and biomass (such as) wood, plant matter, municipal waste, green waste, byproducts of farming or food processing waste, sewage sludge, black liquor from wood pulp, and algae... .
(And) wherein steam is co-fed into the gasifier reactor with the ... slurry. The use of liquid hydrocarbon fuels on an enormous scale for transportation has led to the depletion of readily accessible petroleum reserves in politically stable regions and this, in turn, has focused attention, economically, technically and politically on the development of alternative sources of liquid fuels.
One established route to the production of hydrocarbon liquids is the gasification of carbonaceous materials followed by the conversion of the produced synthesis gas to form liquids by processes such as Fischer-Tropsch and its variants.
In this way, solid fuels such as coal and coke may be converted to liquids.
Entrained flow gasifiers have been demonstrated as highly effective units for the gasification of coal and other carbonaceous fuels such as coke (coal derived) ... .
Summary: We have now developed a process for the co-gasification of carbonaceous solids (such as coal and coke) and biomass which enables the biomass to be fed into the gasifier using existing types of feed transfer and feed injection equipment ... ."
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"Entrained flow gasifiers" are exactly what Pratt & Whitney, as above, in "United States Patent 7,402,188", describe.
They are a "compact, long-life, efficient (type of) gasifier that increases performance and availability while decreasing capital costs", that enables the conversion Coal and all sorts of Carbon-recycling "biomass", along with added "gaseous carbon dioxide" from whatever source, into a "synthesis gas", which syngas can then be converted, via "processes such as Fischer-Tropsch and its variants" into "liquid fuels" on a potentially "enormous scale for transportation".
Seriously:
Ain't it way past time everyone resident in US Coal Country learned about all of these possibilities, learned about them before Big Oil popped another gusher in one of our beautiful oceans, before we spent one more dime on OPEC oil, or one more American life fighting OPEC wars; or, when Carbon-recycling organic wastes and Carbon Dioxide gas itself can both, as herein, be converted, along with Coal, into "liquid fuels ... for transportation", one single stinking red cent on Cap & Trade taxation or on Big Oil-subsidizing Geologic Sequestration scams?