US Pays for Exxon 1978 Coal Liquefaction

 
We continue to chronicle the development of technologies that enable the efficient conversion of Coal into the liquid hydrocarbon fuels we've enslaved ourselves to OPEC for the supply of, with yet another example from one of the companies that coalesced into that lovable giant, ExxonMobil.
 
And, note, We the People paid for Exxon to develop this Coal liquefaction technology, as in this advance excerpt from the full text, as available through the link:
 
"Government Interests: The government of the United States of America has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. E(49-18)-2353 awarded by the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration."  

Texaco 1975 Coal to Methanol

 

We've earlier documented, from other sources, that Coal can be efficiently converted into the valuable liquid hydrocarbon fuel, Methanol.
 
But, we wanted to confirm it, yet again - just in case anyone should have any lingering doubts about that fact; and, since we are preparing additional reports documenting that Methanol, once produced from Coal, and, as you will see below, some other interesting things, can then be converted directly into Gasoline, in a process that itself has some intriguing implications for sustainability and carbon recycling.

Coal Reduces CO2

 
Our header, "Coal Reduces CO2", is related to some of our earlier dispatches, and some to follow, wherein we explained that "reducing" Carbon Dioxide, in the truly technical, chemical sense, means changing it's molecular structure, and the electrical charges of the atoms which compose it, so that the elemental constituents of the relatively inert CO2, Carbon and Oxygen, would become "available" for chemical reaction with other elements, and that Carbon Dioxide could subsequently be broken down, or incorporated into other chemical compounds.
 
Only coincidentally does such chemical reduction lead, through resulting chemical reactions, to an actual physical reduction in the amount of CO2.
 
We also earlier documented that Carbon Dioxide could be chemically reduced to the more reactive Carbon Monoxide, which is very amenable to further reactions and conversion into useful hydrocarbons, by the simple expedient of passing Carbon Dioxide, in the relative absence of Oxygen, over red-hot Coal.

USDOE Hydrogasifies Coal, Recycles Carbon

  
We have lately been documenting a couple of important facts concerning the technologies that exist for converting our abundant Coal into gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons - products that can serve as direct replacements for natural gas and petroleum.
 
One fact is that a properly-designed and specified Coal conversion process, made commercially feasible and economically possible by the scale of Coal's available volume, can allow for the inclusion of other, biological and renewable, feed stocks.
 
Thus, elements of both sustainability and Carbon recycling can be included in an operation centered on the manufacture of liquid hydrocarbon fuels and substitute "natural" gas from Coal. 

ExxonMobil Self-Powered Coal Conversion

  
Our headline might at first seem a little misleading. It is not ExxonMobil specifically we report on in  this dispatch, but one of the many companies that ultimately coalesced into that sprawling conglomerate.
 
Moreover, the offensive four-letter word "Coal" isn't mentioned; not even once.
 
However, we recently made report of: "United States Patent 2,543,795 - Liquid and Gaseous Fuels from Coal" which was awarded in 1951 to scientists working for the Standard Oil Development Company. 
 
In their exposition of that technology, as we attempted to explain, the inventors revealed, in confirmation of other evidence we had earlier submitted, that some Coal conversion processes could be designed in such a way that little or no external energy needed to be supplied to the system.