We have many times emphasized the fact that Coal can be "hydro-gasified", that is, gasified with, or in the presence of, Steam, with both substances being broken down through heat-driven reactions into the simpler, reactive components, Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen; which substances can then be catalytically recombined into various hydrocarbon gases and liquids.
An example of our reportage on that topic would include:
Exxon Gasifies Coal, and Steam-Gasifies the Char | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 5,055,181 - Hydropyrolysis-Gasification of Carbonaceous Material; 1991; Assignee: Exxon Research and Engineering Company; Abstract: Disclosed is a process for obtaining liquids and gases from carbonaceous material, such as coal (wherein the) carbonaceous material is ... hydropyrolyzed for an effective residence time ... to make liquid products. The resulting char is gasified in the presence of steam."
And, there have been many variations made on the process, over the course of many decades, as our reports of the following milestones attest:
West Virginia Coal Association | Standard Oil 1950 Coal + Steam = Syngas | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 2,527,197 - Producing Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen from Carbonaceous Solids; 1950; Assignee: Standard Oil Development Company; Abstract: (An) object of my invention is to provide a process for producing a mixture of CO and hydrogen ... . The production of hydrocarbons, both gaseous and liquid, by using carbon monoxide and hydrogen is old (and) it affords a means of forming valuable hydrocarbons which may be converted, for example, to gasoline ... and other products ordinarily obtained from petroleum. The most commonly used method of preparing carbon monoxide and hydrogen involves the reaction between steam and carbonaceous materials such as coal";
and:
West Virginia Coal Association | WV DuPont 1954 Coal and Steam to Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 2,698,227 - Preparation of Synthesis Gases from Carbonaceous Solids; 1954; Inventor: Luther Peery, et. al., Charleston, WV; Assignee: E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company; This invention relates to a process for the preparation of synthesis gases by the partial oxidation of comminuted solid carbonaceous materials, and is more particularly directed to the preparation of hydrogen, gaseous mixtures containing hydrogen and nitrogen, and gaseous mixtures containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide by the partial oxidation of powdered coal. The product gas ... may be further treated ... for use in the synthesis of methanol. A process for the preparation of a synthesis gas containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen from pulverized coal which comprises suspending pulverized coal in superheated steam, mixing the coal-steam suspension, in a non-ignited state, with a sufficient amount of oxygen of at least 90% purity to convert the coal to carbon monoxide and hydrogen but insufficient to convert the coal to carbon dioxide and water".
Such processes have grown in sophistication, to the point where, as seen in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Conoco 2011 Coal + CO2 + H2O + O2 = Syngas | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 7,959,829 - Gasification System and Process; 2011; Assignee: ConocoPhillips Company; Abstract: A system and process for gasifying carbonaceous feedstock with ... a liquid carrier ... wherein said carrier liquid is ... liquid Carbon Dioxide (and) wherein said particulate carbonaceous material is ... coal, lignite, ... and (additionally) biomass, concentrated sewer sludge, bits of garbage, rubber and mixtures thereof";
not only can Coal be converted into a blend of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, suitable for further catalytic processing to form "methanol", as in the above "US Patent 2,698,227", and, "gasoline ... and other products ordinarily obtained from petroleum", as in "US Patent 2,527,197", but, so can renewable, Carbon-recycling "biomass" and various wastes, and, even, "Carbon Dioxide" itself.
ConocoPhillips was, though, in 2011, just treading what was, obviously, already a well-worn path.
What is surprising is just how well-worn that path, paved with Coal, actually is.
As we see herein, people have actually been walking on it for very nearly one hundred and fifty years.
Some mystic spirit of genius must have remained in Salem, Massachusetts, even after their notorious, Colonial-era witch hunts, since, while the later US Civil War played out it's closing bloody acts several states away, an inspired inventor there devised a way to make Synthetic Gas, the stuff, that, as in the above references, can be readily converted into various liquid hydrocarbon fuels, from Steam and, not only red-hot Coal, but, other, renewable and sustainable, carbonaceous organic products, as well.
Comment follows excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"United States Patent 42,772 - Apparatus for Distilling Off Gases and Vapors
Date: May, 1864
Inventor: John Howarth, Salem, Massachusetts
The present invention relates to a process of distilling coals and other carbonaceous materials in which both internal and external heat are applied to the retorts, the internal heat being furnished by passing superheated steam through the material to be acted upon, and the external heat by a suitable arrangement of flues, combustion chamber, etc.
I have practically demonstrated ... that the best results are obtained by causing the superheated steam to perform the actual work of extracting the volatile products from coal, wood, & etc., and keeping the temperature of the external heat only sufficiently high to prevent radiation, by this means avoiding the evils of destructive distillation and producing products in larger quantities of much greater commercial value than by any process heretofore used.
(Note that, as in "volatile products from coal, wood & etc.", the issues of Carbon recycling and sustainability were already, in 1864, being addressed. And, by "destructive distillation", he is referring to the more traditional "coking"-type processes, which he is trying to avoid. Further, "by a suitable arrangement of flues, combustion chamber, etc.", he seems to be outlining a rather sophisticated concept, given the era, for internal energy recycling and conservation.)
The object of the present invention is to so construct an apparatus for the production of oils, gases, & etc., from carbonaceous materials.
(The) apparatus (can be) operated to form hydrogen alone or hydrocarbon gaseous vapors, or to produce oil."
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We keep our excerpts from this Civil War artifact brief since the custom of the day was to couch the technical disclosures of inventions in language and terms so archaic and dense as to be nearly impenetrable to our more modern minds. Certainly, it doesn't lend itself to concise condensation of the verbiage.
In essence, Howarth describes a sort of two-stage Carbon gasification process in which externally-applied heat first drives reactions that convert much of the original carbonaceous raw material into more volatile fluid hydrocarbons, including "oils", and, in which a partial oxidation of the remaining Carbon then converts the rest of it, with Steam, into "hydrogen alone or hydrocarbon gaseous vapors", which would comprise a hydrocarbon synthesis gas.
Although it seems to take place in only one vessel, it is, in effect, a two-stage Coal, and other Carbon, gasification technology very similar in general, and even specific, respects to the above-cited Exxon process of "US Patent 5,055,181 - Hydropyrolysis-Gasification of Carbonaceous Material", and, others, such as:
West Virginia Coal Association | Consol Low-Cost Hydrogen from CoalTL Residue | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 3,115,394 - Process for the Production of Hydrogen; 1963;
Assignee: Consolidation Coal Company, Pittsburgh; Abstract: This invention relates to a process for the production of hydrogen. More particularly, this invention relates to a process for the production of high-purity hydrogen from carbonaceous solids. Briefly, the process of this invention comprises preparing an inexpensive methane-containing gas from hydrocarbonaceous solids and then subjecting the inexpensive gas to a modified steam reforming reaction zone to produce high purity hydrogen (and can be) applied to the hydrocarbonaceous solid residues obtained by the low temperature distillation or carbonization of hydrocarbonaceous solid fuels such as the high volatile bituminous coal found in the Pittsburgh Seam";
wherein an initial, lower-temperature "carbonization" or "distillation" of Coal generates a first cut of high value hydrocarbon gases and oils; and, the still-carbonaceous Char is gasified with Steam, just as in the later Exxon process of "US Patent 5,055,181 - Hydropyrolysis-Gasification of Carbonaceous Material", to generate a high Hydrogen-content blend of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide hydrocarbon synthesis gas.
And, note that, in the process of our subject, "United States Patent 42,772 - Apparatus for Distilling Off Gases and Vapors", the concept of Carbon conservation, and the prevention of Carbon Dioxide formation, in the gasification process is already being addressed, since it calls for "both internal and external heat" to be utilized in the initial extraction of volatiles from the Coal and Carbon-recycling "wood, & etc.".
We submit that the "external heat", which wouldn't generate much Carbon Dioxide from the carbonaceous raw material itself, can, as well, be supplied in a way that doesn't generate extraneous Carbon Dioxide, either; perhaps via a process such as that described in our report of:
West Virginia Coal Association | Solar Power Converts CO2, H2O and Coal to Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development; concerning: "US Patent 4,177,120 - Photolytic Process for Gasification of Carbonaceous Material; 1979; Assignee: Solarco Corporation, Rockville (MD); Abstract: Process and apparatus are disclosed for converting carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide by subjecting the carbon dioxide to radiation in the presence of carbonaceous material such as coal to form carbon monoxide. The preferred form of radiation is solar energy, and the process is preferably carried out in an atmosphere essentially free of oxygen";
where, given that independently-sourced Carbon-free heat energy is being supplied to drive the gasification reactions, Carbon Dioxide from an extraneous source can even be added, recycled and consumed, to help maximize the production of the desired Carbon Monoxide; or, as in:
West Virginia Coal Association | USDOE Converts Coal to Gasoline with Solar Power | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,229,184 - Apparatus and Method for Solar Coal Gasification; 1980; Assignee: The USA; Abstract: Apparatus for using focused solar radiation to gasify coal and other carbonaceous materials. Incident solar radiation is focused ... onto the surface of a vertically-moving bed of coal, or a fluidized bed of coal, contained within a gasification reactor. Steam introduced into the gasification reactor reacts with the heated coal to produce gas consisting mainly of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, commonly called "synthesis gas", which can be converted to methane, methanol, gasoline, and other useful products";
wherein Steam, too, can be added to maximize the production of needed Hydrogen in that initial Coal gasification, which can lead directly, again, to the synthesis of such seemingly-desirable things as "methane, methanol" and "gasoline".
And, all of that could very well, as seen herein, have had its nativity in a town of reputed mystic inspiration, in a state where they mine no Coal, where they have likely never mined any Coal; but, a state to which some of the roots of modern-day environmentalism and ivory-tower liberal, socially-conscious politics can be traced, almost fully one and one-half centuries ago.
Just, we must ask, how isolated and insular are we, here, in the very heart of United States Coal Country, that news of that has not yet reached us?