Process for the conversion of methane - Google Patent Search
 
As further follow-up to our report of Exxon's United States Patent, Number 3847567, wherein they manufacture Methane from Coal; and, to our other documentation that Methane could be converted into Gasoline, as it was on a pilot plant scale in New Zealand, we herein, via a US Patent held by Penn State University, again confirm that Methane, once manufactured via Coal gasification or Sabatier-type Carbon Dioxide recycling, can be further processed to synthesize the versatile liquid fuel; plastics manufacturing raw material; and, as in ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r) process, gasoline precursor: Methanol.
 

Process to produce a high methane content gas mixture from coal - Patent EP0259927
 
Enclosed is a European Patent that we're sending along just to further document that the technologies exist, and are known world-wide, that would allow us to convert some of our abundant Coal into Methane.
 
The significance of such technology is that, once obtained, Methane, aside from being a substitute natural gas fuel, can, as we recently documented in a report from New Zealand, be directly converted into liquid fuel; and, perhaps more importantly, it can be reacted, in the "tri-reforming" process, as described by both Penn State University and WVU, and others, with Carbon Dioxide, in a process that would consume CO2 and recycle it back into liquid fuels and plastics manufacturing raw materials.

Energy Citations Database (ECD) - - Document #6307439
 
In further support of our case that, once Methane has been generated, by either Sabatier-type Carbon Dioxide recycling, as now employed by NASA, as we've documented, aboard the International Space Station; or, by Coal gasification, as especially defined by ExxonMobil in their United States Patent, Number 3847567, for "Catalytic Coal Hydrogasification", which we very recently reported to you, Methane can then be converted directly into Gasoline, we submit herein documentation from halfway around the world attesting to the fact.
 
The excerpts, comment appended:
 
"Title: Methane-to-gasoline plant adds to New Zealand liquid fuel resources
 
Author: J. Haggin
 
Journal: Chemical Engineering News; June, 1987
 
Abstract: For slightly more than a year, New Zealand Synthetic Fuels Corp. has been operating the world's first plant to convert methane to gasoline. Based on the year's operations, the plant has more than fulfilled expectations of the owners, designers, and builders. The plant's success is not unqualified, however. The world economic situation at the time the plant was designed and financed was quite different from what it is today. Although the plant cannot be considered a financial success at this point, that too could change if world economics do another flip-flop because of gyrating oil prices. Whatever the financial considerations, the plant has met the strategic goal of reducing New Zealand's dependence on foreign oil. The conception and organization of the methane-to-gasoline project is outlined."
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As it happens, unsurprisingly, other reports we'll not cite herein document that this New Zealand enterprise, which converted Methane into Gasoline, and which "more than fulfilled expectations of the owners, designers, and builders", closed down not long after this report was made.
 
We rather imagine that the "world economic situation" - read: the price of oil and oil's economic impact - might be a bit different now than it was a little more than two decades ago. Bet we've done a couple of "economic ... flip-flop"s since then.
 
Our points are: Methane can be successfully converted into gasoline on a production basis. Methane can be synthesized from either CO2 or Coal.

Energy Citations Database (ECD) - - Document #6116996
 
For more than three years, Penn State University was employed by the US Department of Energy to improve the technology for liquefying coal, under Contract Number AC22-83PC60050, as documented herein.
 
Interestingly enough, as we will document in another dispatch to follow, Penn State University and at least one of the scientists responsible for this study, were, coincident with and following this effort, pursuing even more USDOE-sponsored research to improve and refine coal liquefaction technology.
 
Like much else about the development of coal liquefaction and gasification technologies, in an extensive, nationwide program organized and financed by our United States Department of Energy, involving multiple research organizations, efforts and reports ended near the middle of the 1980's.