United States Patent Application: 0090298958
Herein we present yet another, essentially Coal liquefaction, technology developed by the now-notorious British Petroleum.
In perfect honesty, though, our headline on this dispatch might at first seem deceptive or misleading.
Like many of Big Oil's published treatises on Coal conversion technologies, targeted on the production of liquid hydrocarbon replacements for the stuff we've indentured ourselves to the beneficent group of nations known as OPEC for the supply of, BP manages to avoid any use of the dirty, four-letter word, "Coal", throughout their full Disclosure.
They speak only of an improved process for reacting Hydrogen with Carbon Monoxide, from an anonymous donor, in order to produce "hydrocarbons ... particularly suitable for use as liquid motor fuels".
But, the title of their invention is, simply, "Fischer Tropsch Process"; and, in honesty, even our revered Fischer and Tropsch often avoided, in the several disclosures of their original process, the use of any such profanities.
As can be learned by study of one of their own seminal expositions, in:
Process for the production of paraffin-hydrocarbons with more than one carbon atom; concerning: "United States Patent 1,746,464; 1930; Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch".
However, should anyone question where we might actually obtain a blend of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, as specified herein by British Petroleum, we suggest you look closer to home, as in:
WV 1955 Hydrogen & Syngas from Coal | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 2,699,384 - Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen from Carbonaceous Solids; 1955; Luther Perry, et. al., Charleston, WV; Assignee: E.I. DuPont and Company; Abstract: This invention ... is ... a process for the preparation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen by the partial combustion of coal in the presence of steam."
Okay, given all of that, following, as excerpted from the initial link in this dispatch, is what the esteemed British Petroleum tells us we can do with such a mixture of "carbon monoxide and hydrogen", as we might want to prepare by gasifying "coal in the presence of steam":
"United States Patent Application 20090298958 - Fischer Tropsch Process
Date: December, 2009
Inventors: Jay Simon Clarkson, et. al., Great Britain
Assignee: BP Exploration Operating Company Limited, Sudbury on Thames
Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for converting synthesis gas to hydrocarbons, in particular to hydrocarbons in the C5-C60 range particularly suitable for use as liquid motor fuels ... in the presence of a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst comprising cobalt and zinc oxide wherein the Fischer-Tropsch catalyst is activated with a reducing gas consisting of hydrogen and an inert gas at 330 to 400C prior to contact with synthesis gas in the slurry reactor.
Claims: Process comprising converting synthesis gas to hydrocarbons in a slurry reactor in the presence of a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst comprising cobalt and zinc oxide wherein the process comprises: a) activating the Fischer-Tropsch catalyst with a reducing gas consisting of hydrogen and an inert gas at a temperature comprised between 330 and 400 degrees C, and b) contacting the activated Fischer-Tropsch catalyst from step a) with synthesis gas in the slurry reactor in order to convert the synthesis gas into hydrocarbons.
Process ... wherein step a) is performed at a temperature comprised between 351 and 400 degrees C.
Process ... wherein step a) is performed at a pressure comprised between 1 and 100 bar, preferably at a pressure comprised between 1 and 10 bar.
(In other words, this can be done best between normal atmospheric pressure and ten times atmospheric pressure, which, we assure you, is no big deal when it comes to chemical processing equipment made from steel. You'll typically have between two and three "bars" of pressure in the tires on your car.)
Process ... wherein the reducing gas consists of hydrogen and an inert gas in a molar ratio of 1 to 75% of hydrogen and 99 to 25% of the inert gas, preferably 20 to 30% of hydrogen and 80 to 70% of inert gas.
Process ... wherein the inert gas is nitrogen.
(So, the mysterious and expensive-sounding "inert gas" is simply Nitrogen. Since better than two thirds of the air we breathe is Nitrogen, it shouldn't break the bank to scrape a little together.)
Process for activating a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst comprising cobalt and zinc oxide for use for converting synthesis gas into hydrocarbons.
(The catalyst they specify is "cobalt and zinc oxide", basically an Iron-group metal along with the primary ingredient of sunscreen ointments. Shouldn't break the bank to scrape a little those together, either.)
The present invention relates to a process for converting synthesis gas to hydrocarbons in the presence of a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst comprising cobalt and zinc oxide.
In particular, the present invention relates to a process for converting synthesis gas to hydrocarbons, in particular to hydrocarbons in the C5-C60 range particularly suitable for use as liquid motor fuels ... .
It is well known that synthesis gas, i.e., hydrogen and carbon oxide(s), can be converted to hydrocarbons in the presence of a variety of transition metal catalysts.
(Not, sadly, so "well known", or much talked about, in US Coal Country. We really now wonder why.)
In the development of their slurry reactor technology, the Applicants have unexpectedly found an improvement in their process for converting synthesis gas to hydrocarbons, said improvement relating to the stability of their specific cobalt zinc oxide catalyst in slurry reactor conditions.
Accordingly the present invention provides a process which comprises converting synthesis gas to hydrocarbons in a slurry reactor in the presence of a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst comprising cobalt and zinc oxide wherein the process comprises:a) activating the Fischer-Tropsch catalyst with a reducing gas consisting of hydrogen and inert gas at a temperature comprised between 330 and 400C., and b) contacting the activated Fischer-Tropsch catalyst from step a) with synthesis gas in the slurry reactor in order to convert the synthesis gas into hydrocarbons."
------------------
And, again, those "hydrocarbons" would be "particularly suitable for use as liquid motor fuels".
Further, it is all accomplished with very common, even cheap, ingredients and components.
Moreover, we know that we can, according, as above, to West Virginia scientists in the employ of DuPont, in their Disclosure of "United States Patent 2,699,384", make the Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, required herein by British Petroleum, to synthesize "liquid motor fuels", through a process for "the partial combustion of coal in the presence of steam".
There are some other ways to get them, as well, which might actually represent a more responsible use of our available resources; and, a way of conserving and extending our precious Coal reserves while at the same time assuaging some of the concerns expressed by our environmentally-sensitive fellow citizens.
First, we can economically obtain the Hydrogen, as seen in:
USDOE Algae Make Hydrogen for Coal and CO2 Hydrogenation | Research & Development; concerning:
"Photosynthetic Hydrogen and Oxygen Production by Green Algae; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Abstract: Photosynthesis research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is focused on hydrogen and oxygen production by green algae";
in a way that also botanically recycles Carbon Dioxide through the metabolism of photosynthetic algae.
And, we can obtain the Carbon Monoxide, needed herein by BP to make "liquid motor fuels", as seen in:
More Pre-WWII CO2 Recycling | Research & Development; concerning:
"United States Patent 2,128,262 - Carbon Monoxide Manufacture; 1938; Assignee: Semet-Solvay Engineering Corporation; Abstract: An object of this invention is to provide an efficient and economical process for the manufacture of carbon monoxide (from) carbon dioxide (by) passing ... carbon dioxide through (an) incandescent body of coke";
simply by blowing environmentally-offensive Carbon Dioxide, recovered from whatever handy source, through red-hot Coal.