We're including two primary links in this dispatch, since the technical disclosures of the two United States Patents, for the efficient conversion of Coal into hydrocarbon synthesis gas, connected to by those links, both assigned to the former Texaco, which was assimilated a few decades ago into Chevron, make reference to each other in the courses of their respective expositions.
As a quick search of the West Virginia Coal Association Research and Development archives will attest, we've already documented for you more than thirty Carbon conversion technologies developed by the former Texaco and it's associated companies; technologies directly pertaining to the transformation of Coal, Carbon-recycling wastes and Carbon Dioxide itself into hydrocarbon liquids and gases.
And, there are more to follow.
Redundancy is unavoidable. Many of the Texaco technologies are so similar in their descriptions that we cannot fathom how our expert US Patent Examiners were able to judge which applications were innovative enough to be worthy of patent protection, and which were not.
We do strive to avoid direct repetition of our prior reports. But, we're certain some of that has happened and will likely happen again.
Which brings us to, perhaps, the key point of our presentation herein:
How is it, why is it, that our own United States Department of Energy - - with all of it's money, with all of it's highly-educated and fully-functioning researchers, with all of it's libraries, with all of it's sophisticated computers and communications gear - - has not yet compiled a full, complete, organized and easily accessible database containing and presenting all of the Coal conversion and Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies that have been developed, and which should be made available to us?
Coal is far and away the largest, greatest resource we currently have in our natural warehouse.
Carbon Dioxide is claimed by many to be too abundant.
Both Coal and Carbon Dioxide can be efficiently converted into anything we now despoil our oceans and fight foreign wars to keep ourselves supplied with.
It's way, way damn past time that plain fact - - and, it is a fact, a hard, incontrovertible fact, again as the West Virginia Coal Association R&D archives attest - - was made available to the public; was offered and submitted for consideration to the everyday United States citizens whose wealth is being sapped away by Big Oil profiteering and OPEC national treasury building.
It's way, way past time that plain fact became central to any further expenditure of tax-derived money, by our USDOE or anyone else, on "alternative" energy resources.
And, since the public media voices of Coal Country seem to lack the will and the motivation to focus on those on critical issues, and to make certain that the Coal Country public truly know what their options are; what, relative to Coal conversion and CO2 recycling, could and should be done; we make a few humble suggestions about how to go about getting that deplorable situation corrected, following excerpts from the initial and following links in this dispatch, to:
"United States Patent 2,946,670 - Manufacture of Synthesis Gas
Date: July, 1960
Inventor: Thomas Whaley, NY
Assignee: Texaco Development Corporation, NYC
This invention relates to a method for the gasification of solid carbonaceous fuels. In one of its more specific aspects it relates to the manufacture of synthesis gas from solid carbonaceous fuels.
The process of the present invention is especially useful in connection with the generation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen from solid carbonaceous fuels by partial oxidation. Coke, coal of various grades, for example, lignite, bituminous and anthracite coals ... are suitable as fuels for the process.
The mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen produced by this process may be used as a source of feed gas for the synthesis of alcohol, or hydrocarbons ... .
The gasification of solid fuels by reaction with oxygen and steam at temperatures above about 2000F is well known. I have now found that coal may be gasified in a reaction zone having and exceptionally high ratio of length to diameter under conditions of highly turbulent flow at temperatures considerably below those heretofore employed.
(Just making the Coal gasifier longer and narrower, in other words, improves the Coal gasification.)
Substantial amounts of steam may be used in the production of hydrogen and carbon monoxide by reaction with oxygen at temperatures within the limits of this process. Some lignites already contain water in sufficient quantities to meet the theoretical steam requirements of the process.
Oxygen of relatively high purity ... is used, thereby largely eliminating nitrogen from the reactant feed to the gas generator.
(The above does a couple of things. First, it eliminates the co-generation of Nitrogen Oxide pollutants, which happens when plain old air used to support the partial combustion of the Coal. And, it makes the process far more efficient by preventing the loss of energy represented by the formation of Nitrogen Oxides, since the oxidation of Nitrogen is an endothermic reaction. And, getting the Oxygen shouldn't be too much of a problem. We have a suggestion as to how to go about it.
As can be learned via:
USDOE Algae Make Hydrogen for Coal and CO2 Hydrogenation | Research & Development; concerning: "Photosynthetic Hydrogen and Oxygen Production by Green Algae; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Tennessee; USDOE Contract Number: AC05-96OR22464; Abstract: Photosynthesis research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is focused on hydrogen and oxygen production by green algae in the context of its potential as a renewable fuel and chemical feed stock";
our own, tax-funded US Department of Energy knows how to build a system wherein Green Algae, fed with CO2-rich exhaust gases from a Coal-fired power plant, can, in alternating cycles of light and dark, and of nutrient supply, produce, alternatively, elemental Hydrogen during times of stress, which Hydrogen could be used to hydrogenate Carbon Dioxide into Methane, CH4, via the Sabatier Process; as seen in:
Sabatier reaction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; "CO2 + 4H2 = CH4 + 2H2O";
or, to hydrogenate primary Coal tars in the West Virginia Process, as in:
WVU Hydrogenates Coal Tar | Research & Development; concerning: "Hydrogenation of Naphthalene and Coal Tar; WVU; 2009; (The) direct reaction between coal and hydrogen involves the conversion of coal to refinable crude hydrocarbons, from which liquid fuels such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene, etc., can be produced"; and,
during normal photosynthetic periods, when light and nutrients are supplied: Oxygen.)
Numerous vaporizable liquids are suitable for the preparation of the (Coal) suspension. Water and oils are preferred. Water ... and coal oils ... and coal distillates are preferred oils for use in the process.
Specific examples ... include water; ... tar fraction of a coal distillate (and) tetralin.
(Such "tetralin", though not reflected in our cursory inserted excerpts above, is the intermediary Hydrogen donor substance WVU specifies is to be made through their initial "Hydrogenation of Naphthalene".)
Claims: A process for the gasification of a solid carbonaceous fuel ... (to form a) ... product gas comprising carbon monoxide and hydrogen."
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And, though not reflected in our excerpts, Texaco does stipulate that the conversion of the Carbon content of the Coal into Carbon Monoxide is, essentially, complete, with less than 10% being lost in the formation, or the pass through, of Carbon Dioxide; which, in any case, can be reclaimed and recycled to the Coal gasification chamber, where, in reactions with the hot Carbon, as in: CO2 + C = 2CO, it can be recycled through conversion into more Carbon Monoxide.
Furthermore, all of this should by now sound very familiar, as it resonates with quite a few similar Coal hydro-gasification technologies we've documented for you, including a few, as seen in:
USDOE Hydrogasifies Coal, Recycles Carbon | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 3,988,123 - Gasification of Carbonaceous Solids; 1976; Assignee: The United States of America;
The invention described herein was made in the course of Contract E(49-18)-1548 with the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration. Abstract: A process and apparatus for converting coal and other carbonaceous solids to an intermediate heating value fuel gas or to a synthesis gas. A stream of entrained pulverized coal is fed into the combustion stage of a three-stage gasifier along with a mixture of oxygen and steam at selected pressure and temperature";
which "We the People" paid for and own.
Again, the above Texaco process of US Patent 2,946,670 makes reference to, and is itself referenced by, a contemporary and companion Texaco hydrocarbon synthesis gas production technology, disclosed via:
"United States Patent 2,864,677 - Gasification of solid carbonaceous materials
Date: December, 1958
Inventors: Du Bois Eastman, CA, and Leon Gaucher, NY
Assignee: The Texas Company (i.e., Texaco), NYC
This invention comprises a process for effecting conversion of solid carbonaceous material ... into carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reaction with oxygen ... with relatively little formation of carbon dioxide.
In one of it's more specific aspects, this invention relates to a process for the generation of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, suitable as a source of gaseous fuel or as a source of feed gas for the synthesis of hydrocarbons from coal.
The process of the present invention is especially useful in connection with the generation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen ... for the synthesis of hydrocarbons.
The gasification of solid fuels by simultaneous reaction with oxygen and steam ... is fairly well known.
(We are fond, in our reports, of inserting derisive comments about such statements, concerning the facets of Coal-to-hydrocarbon conversion which should, in US Coal Country, at least, be "well known", but, obviously and sadly, are not. To avoid being tiresome, we'll forego that almost obligatory derision.)
(An) object (of this invention) is to provide a process for the generation of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen from solid carbonaceous materials.
The total oxygen requirements for the generator, that is, oxygen from steam as well as free oxygen, must be at least 10 percent in excess of the amount theoretically required to convert the carbon content of the (coal) to carbon monoxide.
In general, satisfactory operation may be obtained with a total oxygen supply of 10 to 80 percent in excess of the theoretical requirements (and) it is necessary to use from about 0.4 to 1.0 pound free oxygen per pound of coal. From about 0.3 to about 2.0 pounds of steam per pound of coal may be used.
(Note, again, that some extra Oxygen is needed to support the process, and, as in:
Chicago Hydrogen from H2O | Research & Development; in which we make report of the "United States Patent 4,793,910 - Photoelectrochemical Cell for Unassisted Photocatalysis; 1988; Assignee: Gas Research Institute, Chicago; A multielectrode photoelectrochemical cell ... which ... contains two bipolar electrode panels for photoelectrochemical reactions such as water photolysis to produce H2 (and) O2 ...";
we can economically produce that Oxygen, from Water, in a process driven by sunlight, which process also generates the Hydrogen which could be used in the above-cited WVU process for the "Hydrogenation of Naphthalene and Coal Tar" in order to effect the "direct reaction between coal and hydrogen" to, ultimately, produce "gasoline, diesel, (and) kerosene".)
Claims: (A) process for the generation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen from a solid carbonaceous fuel by partial oxidation in (a) zone wherein said solid fuel ... is reacted with free oxygen and steam ... .
(And) wherein said solid fuel is coal."
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And, as Texaco themselves specify, such a mixture of "carbon monoxide and hydrogen" is particularly suitable "feed gas for the synthesis of alcohol, or hydrocarbons".
Now, as concerns our opening preamble, far above, we wanted to alert our readers to some web-based, easily accessible resources that we would suggest they utilize, as follows:
First, via the link: United States Newspapers; you can access direct links to the web-based versions of, believe it or not, as they summarize: "over 3,300 United States Newspapers".
Check the ones out local to your little piece of Coal Country Heaven. But, ignore the mastheads listing the editors and reporters, they've had their chance. Look, instead, for the big, display-type advertisements, and make note especially of the car dealers, appliance stores, restaurants and realtors. Pick one, just one, from each of those categories and take the time to write a brief letter to each of them. Their addresses should be easy to find and the notes can be sent simply to: "Manager".
All the message needs to say is that Coal can be efficiently converted into liquid hydrocarbon fuels, we don't have to be slaves to OPEC and Big Oil, the truth of the matter has been published by the West Virginia Coal Association on their web site; and: If the local newspapers and other news outlets can't scrape up the ink or the air time to make public exposition of the truth of that matter, then you will be forced to start taking any of your business to the purveyors of capital goods thatdon't spend money in the support of news outlets that, for whatever suspect reasons, refuse to publicly disclose that fact to the people who most deserve to know it.
Further: Urge those advertisers to consider how much more money might be spent in their places of business, if "Oil" money started flowing into their locale, instead of out; if more of their potential customers were actually employed in decent-paying jobs; and, if less money were wasted on utility bills made higher due to Cap & Trade taxation or Geologic Sequestration penalties.
Second: Via the link: Congressional Email Directory, you can track down the email address of every United States Congressman and Senator. Track down yours, and: Send them a link to the West Virginia Coal Association web page you're reading right now, along with a note very similar to that we suggest you send to the news outlet advertisers. Only, it won't be your business you'll be taking elsewhere if the facts concerning the truth of Coal conversion and Carbon Dioxide recycling don't come out and are acted upon, but, your votes.
Third: If you make the effort to check out your own home state's web page, you will find resources similar to the following that are available, as only an example, for the state of West Virginia:
West Virginia Legislature; and: West Virginia State Senators; and: West Virginia House of Delegates.
Through links such as those, you can obtain the email addresses of each and every office holder who purports to represent you on a more local, more personal level.
They need to receive an email from each and every one of you very similar in wording to that you'll be sending to your US Congressmen and US Senators.
Finally, print out ten copies of this report. Then, personally deliver one, with explanations both as to how and where you found it and that Coal and Carbon Dioxide both can be converted into the stuff we put our backs to the barrel of a gun to get down at the local filling station, individually, to ten of your friends.
And, ask them directly to do as you did, and follow the First, Second and Third steps we outlined above.
It ain't just time to get this done. It's way, way, way past time to get this done.