We have reported on the potential of enhancing the coal liquefaction process - making the conversion of coal into liquid fuels more efficient and productive - by adding scrapped, waste automobile tires, as a co-feed, to the raw coal being processed.
In addition to the other researchers we have cited, West Virginia University has discovered the coal-tire synergy, as well, and researchers there have studied it.
The excerpt:
"Free radical monitoring of the coprocessing of coal with chemical components of waste tires
Manjula M. Ibrahim and Mohindar S. Seehra
Department of Physics, P.O. Box 6315, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6315, USA
Abstract
The effects of a Michelin tire tread and its various chemical components (butadiene rubber, aromatic oil, carbon, sulfur, ZnO) on the free radical intensities N of Blind Canyon coal using in-situ electron spin resonance spectroscopy are reported from ambient to 500°C. These experiments show that the tire tread and its components lower the temperature of thermal cracking of the coal and promote enhanced cracking as evidenced by increased magnitudes of N for temperatures below 440°C. These results support the reported improved liquefaction of the coal with waste tire polymers."