We've documented the Coal gasification expertise of New York's General Electric Company in several previous reports. And, as seen in:
General Electric | Research & Development; which tells us that: "Currently, there are 65 gasification plants licensed by GE Energy in commercial operation worldwide, with an additional 20 in engineering and/or construction phases";
their Coal conversion technology and equipment are recognized and utilized on a world-wide basis, primarily, it seems, in China, though not, unfortunately, so much so in the United States of America.
Further, we've also documented that GE has geared their Coal gasification processes toward the efficient generation of one final product, i.e., Methane, as illustrated in:
General Electric Hydrogenates Coal | Research & Development; which makes report of: "United States Patent 3,556,749 - Apparatus and Method for the Hydrogenation of Coal; 1971; Assignee: General Electric Company; Abstract: The conversion of coal into methane by reaction thereof with hydrogen gas".
We do, however, note that their Coal hydro-gasification technology does result in the formation of an intermediate synthesis gas, consisting primarily of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, which can, instead of Methane, be directed into a Fischer-Tropsch, or related, catalytic reactor, where, as seen in:
Mobil Upgrades Fischer-Tropsch Fuel | Research & Development | News; which concerns: "United States Patent 4,041,094 - Upgrading Products of Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis; 1977; Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation; Abstract: Upgrading of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis product ... to highly valued hydrocarbons such as motor gasoline with high octane number, petrochemical feedstocks, liquefiable petroleum fuel gas, and aromatic hydrocarbons";
such Coal-derived synthesis gas can be chemically condensed into virtually anything we now rely on dwindling natural petroleum for the supply of.
In the Coal gasification technology disclosed by General Electric via the United States Patent we discuss herein, they also indicate, in support of earlier documentation of the facts we've provided, as in:
Germany Gasifies Coal with CO2 and H2O | Research & Development; which makes report of: "United States Patent 4,347,064 - Process of Gasifying Fine-Grained Solid Fuels; 1982;
California Hydrogasifies Coal & Carbon-Recycling Wastes | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 7,500,997 - Steam Pyrolysis (for) the Hydro-Gasification of Carbonaceous Materials; 2009; The University of California; Abstract: A process and apparatus for producing a synthesis gas for use as a gaseous fuel or as feed into a Fischer-Tropsch reactor to produce a liquid fuel (wherein) a slurry of carbonaceous material in water, and hydrogen from an internal source, are fed into a hydro-gasification reactor to generate ... synthesis gas (and wherein) the carbonaceous material comprises municipal waste, biomass, wood, coal, or a natural or synthetic polymer";
both, that, Carbon Dioxide gas itself can be utilized as one of the agents of Coal gasification; and, the process can be applied to, as General Electric specifies in their full Disclosure, not only "any of the various grades of coal", but, to Carbon-recycling "charcoal, wood and non-woody materials", as well.
Comment follows excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"United States Patent 4,558,027 - Catalysts for Carbon and Coal Gasification
Date: December, 1985
Inventors: Douglas McKee, et. al., NY (All employees of General Electric Company)
Assignee: The United States of America
The invention relates to improved catalysts for carbon and coal gasification and improved processes for catalytic, coal gasification. The United States Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. DE-AC21-80MC14591 between the U.S. Department of Energy and General Electric Co.
(Our introductory comments were over-long, and we didn't want to take the space there to point out that our own USDOE was so encouraged by the Coal and Carbon conversion expertise already demonstrated by General Electric, as in our other reports documenting their prowess, that they paid GE, with our tax money, to develop this refinement on Coal conversion and Carbon recycling technology. We the People, thus, own it. Why, we are thus compelled to ask, haven't We the People yet been told about it?)
Abstract: Catalyst for the production of methane from carbon and/or coal by means of catalytic gasification. The catalyst composition containing at least two alkali metal salts. A particulate carbonaceous substrate or carrier is used.
Claims: A catalyst for use in the process of producing methane from particulate carbonaceous material, comprising a catalyst ... formed of a mixture of alkali metal salts consisting essentially of at least one of an alkali metal carbonate and an alkali metal sulfate together with at least one of an alkali metal halide and an alkali metal carbonate differing from the first-mentioned alkali metal carbonate ... .
(Note, that, with apologies for what will be a lengthy interruption, as seen in our previous report of:
US Navy and Columbia University Recycle Atmospheric CO2 | Research & Development; which contains separate discussion of: "United States Patent 7,833,328 - Scrubber for Capturing Carbon Dioxide from Air; 2010; Assignee: Columbia University; Abstract: The present invention is directed to methods for carbon dioxide from air, which (utilizes a) solvent (which) is adapted to remove carbon dioxide from open air under ambient conditions (and) wherein the solvent is a hydroxide solution";
alkali metal hydroxides can be employed in an appropriately-designed apparatus to efficiently "scrub" Carbon Dioxide even from the atmosphere itself. The reaction of the alkali metal hydroxide with Carbon Dioxide typically forms an alkali metal bicarbonate, which, with minimal heating that could be accomplished by solar radiation, is converted into an "alkali metal carbonate" as used by GE in their process herein, of "United States Patent 4,558,027", to help catalyze and contribute to the Methane-forming gasification of Carbon. Such use of alkali carbonates could, then, be seen and employed as an additional route of Carbon Dioxide recycling, in addition to the use of Carbon Dioxide gas itself, in the process of GE's invention.
Furthermore, if such a scrubber were to be utilized on the exhaust stream of a typical petroleum refinery "hydro-cracker", it could likely produce plenty of the "alkali metal sulfate" suggested herein by GE, as well. And, we can make plenty of the "alkali metal halide" also required by the evaporation of naturally-occurring Coal Country brines, which, as seen in:
W.Va. will use gas well brine on winter roads » The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia; wherein we learn that: "Salty wastewater from natural gas wells may end up on West Virginia roads this winter under a new agreement between the state departments of Environmental Protection and Transportation. The brine will come from producing wells, Mandirola said, not from the hydraulic fracturing of Marcellus shale wells. That fluid, used in unconventional horizontal drilling, contains additives that make it thicker and slicker (and, such) fracking water also could contain ... radioactive material";
we have enough of being co-produced from already existing natural gas wells, that we can dump it on our Coal Country roads to prevent them from icing over.)
The catalyst ... wherein the mixture of alkali metal salts is melted (together into a composite blend, and) then solidified and ground into particulate form prior to deposition ... on the ... carbonaceous material.
Description and Background: Coal has been converted to methane using the thermal-gasification scheme wherein coal was reacted with steam at a high temperature ... to produce synthesis gas (CO+H2), which then underwent additional reactions at a lower temperature ..., producing CH4.
Alkali-metal salts of weak acids (such as Potassium Carbonate and Sodium Carbonate) ... have been used to catalyze the steam gasification of coal.
Increasing the amount of (Potassium Carbonate) on charcoal increased the quantity of synthesis gas produced when (that) mixture was reacted with steam ... .
(Note, again, the potential for doing the same thing with renewable, Carbon-recycling "charcoal" from botanical sources, as we do with our abundant Coal.)
Summary: An object of the invention is to provide an improved process for the catalytic gasification of coal and other carbonaceous material to methane. Another object of the invention is to provide an improved catalyst for such process.
(The) invention involves an improved process for the production of methane from coal or carbon by means of catalytic gasification of the coal or carbon.
The invention also involves an improved catalyst for use in the process of producing methane from carbon and/or coal.
Preferably the catalyst composition contains an alkali metal carbonate or an alkali metal sulfate and at least one further alkali metal salt.
Preferably the alkali metal carbonate is sodium carbonate or potassium carbonate. Also, preferably the further alkali metal salt is an alkali metal carbonate other than the required alkali metal carbonate. Preferably the further alkali metal salt is an alkali metal halide.
(Again: Via stack scrubbers and brine wells, we can make any and all of the "metal sulfate", "metal carbonate", and "metal halide" (Sodium Chloride, i.e., table salt, is a perfectly acceptable "metal halide") catalysts we might ever want or need for General Electric's process as disclosed herein.)
The process combines two reaction steps, namely, gasification and methanation, in one fluidized-bed reactor to produce methane (that is, synthetic natural gas). The invention process uses the invention catalyst to selectively produce methane by reacting coal and steam at one temperature and in a fluidized-bed reaction vessel.
The process consists of four main operations; coal preparation, fluidized-bed gasification, catalyst makeup and recovery, and product separation and recovery. The process allows the reactions to take place in a single reactor.
In the gasifier, the primary reactions are steam, hydrogen and CO2 gasification ... ."
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We'll close our excerpts right there so that we can emphasize the point that "CO2" itself, reclaimed from whatever source, can be utilized and recycled in a process that synthesizes Methane, CH4, from Coal and from any CO2-recycling, botanically-sourced "charcoal".
And, once we have the Methane, made so efficiently via a process you and we actually are supposed to own, and which we should at least know about, from some or our abundant Coal, and any CO2-recycling botanical wastes we want to dump into the bin along with the Coal, we can use that Methane to, as seen in:
More Standard Oil 1944 CO2 + CH4 = Hydrocarbons | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 2.347.682 - Hydrocarbon Synthesis; 1944; Assignee: Standard Oil Company of Indiana; Abstract: This invention relates to an improved method and means for effecting the synthesis of hydrocarbons from carbon monoxide and hydrogen (wherein) methane (is) mixed with such proportion of carbon dioxide and steam (and processed so) as to give a gas mixture ... of hydrogen and carbon monoxide ... hereinafter referred to as ... 'synthesis' gas (which can be) converted ... into high quality motor fuels or heavier oils";
recycle any old Carbon Dioxide we might want to snatch from the off gases of any old Ethane cracker, or any old Corn Ethanol brewery, we might stumble across, and, via reactions between Methane and Carbon Dioxide, brew us up some "high quality motor fuels".