WV Coal Member Meeting 2024 1240x200 1 1

Pittsburgh's Gulf Oil Liquefies & Gasifies Coal

 
We some time ago, in multiple reports, documented the development, by Pittsburgh's former Gulf Oil Corporation, and their Pittsburg, Kansas, and Colorado, P&M Mining subsidiary, all since absorbed into the Chevron conglomerate, of multiple technologies wherein Coal could be converted into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels.
 
Herein we submit one of Gulf Oil's Coal conversion technologies which we might earlier have missed.

Pittsburgh, PA, USDOE Coal Hydrogasification

 
We see herein that our own United States Government, as embodied in the USDOE's Pittsburgh,PA, former US Bureau of Mines, facilities, three decades ago, devoted itself to establishing technology that efficiently manufactures a gaseous mixture of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, in apparently variable proportions, by reacting Steam with hot Coal.
 
An advance excerpt from the full Disclosure cuts to the chase:
 
"In accordance with the present invention, a process for gasifying solid carbonaceous material by its reaction with H2O and O2 is provided ... to form CO and H2."

Morgantown, WV, USDOE Coal Liquid Hydrogenation

 
As we have many times documented, one factor that is key to producing liquid hydrocarbon fuels from our abundant reserves of Coal is the efficient chemical addition of Hydrogen, to the primarily carbonaceous compounds that we can easily derive from Coal.
 
In a project that should have concluded and been reported precisely two months ago, the Morgantown, WV, National Energy Technology Laboratory of the United States Department of Energy was supposed to have finished addressing that issue.
 

Exxon 1981 Coal Liquefaction Process

 
Herein is yet another Coal liquefaction process developed by Exxon, prior to their merger with Mobil.
 
And, somewhat surprisingly, that is exactly what they call it.
 
Based on our experience in researching these technologies, it is unusual for the originators of such processes, and/or our US Patent examiners, to so plainly label inventions which describe the ways in which Coal can be transformed into petroleum replacements.

Mobil 1981 Coal Liquefaction Process

 
Herein is yet another Coal liquefaction process developed by Mobil, prior to their merger with Exxon.
 
The Coal conversion technology described herein is a sophisticated, integrated process designed to take advantage of the full product "slate" generated by the Fischer-Tropsch indirect process of converting Coal, through the initial production of synthesis gas, into various, and more versatile, hydrocarbons.  
 
That product slate includes the heat energy arising from the controlled oxidation of Coal during syngas production, which Mobil intends using to generate Steam for the purpose of needed hydrogenation.
 
And, rather than uneconomically "forcing" the conversion of Coal into a narrow product range, through additional reaction and processing steps, Mobil suggests, simply, that we take fullest advantage of the things that are produced.