Coal Liquefaction Industry Research Info

 
We've notified you of, and sent you links to, a number of research reports, even complete books, focused on the topic of how converting our abundant coal into the liquid fuels we're short of is both technically proven - even, in South Africa, well-developed - and - as the Chinese have realized - economically beneficial. 
 
Herein are three more such studies.
 
We can't vouch for the credentials of the source, or sources of these reports. And, we can't afford to buy them. But, if anyone truly interested in the reality and viability of coal-to-liquid fuels and chemicals conversion technology is sufficiently motivated to mine the seam a little deeper, here are some potential avenues of exploration:
 
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Coal Liquefaction Industry in United States
 
The tightening of worldwide oil reserves is causing the price of oil to escalate - and makes coal, which is much more abundantly available, an interesting starting material for liquid fuels and chemical raw materials. Circumstances have thus made coal liquefaction a very lucrative option.

Coal liquefaction is a process that converts coal from a solid state into liquid fuels, usually to provide substitutes for petroleum products. Coal liquefaction processes were first developed in the early part of the 20th century but later application was hindered by the relatively low price and wide availability of crude oil and natural gas.

Aruvian Research’s report on the Coal Liquefaction Industry in the United States is a complete coverage report which focuses on the basics of coal liquefaction, its history, challenges and barriers, the growth drivers, major market players, major ongoing projects, and the economics of coal liquefaction. With the growing popularity of coal liquefaction, Aruvian’s report comes at the right time for anyone wanting to upgrade their knowledge on this lucrative industry.
 
 
 
Analyzing Coal to Liquids
 
Coal is a fossil fuel formed in ecosystems where plant remains were saved by water and mud from oxidization and biodegradation. Coal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black rock. It is a sedimentary rock, but the harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rocks because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. It is composed primarily of carbon along with assorted other elements, including sulfur. It is the largest single source of fuel for the generation of electricity world-wide, as well as the largest world-wide source of carbon dioxide emissions, slightly ahead of petroleum and about double that of natural gas. Coal is extracted from the ground by coal mining, either underground mining or open pit mining.

Coals can also be converted into liquid fuels like gasoline or diesel by several different processes. The Fischer-Tropsch process of indirect synthesis of liquid hydrocarbons was used in Nazi Germany for many years and is today used by Sasol in South Africa. Coal would be gasified to make syngas (a balanced purified mixture of CO and H2 gas) and the syngas condensed using Fischer-Tropsch catalysts to make light hydrocarbons which are further processed into gasoline and diesel. Syngas can also be converted to methanol, which can be used as a fuel, fuel additive, or further processed into gasoline via the Mobil M-gas process.

Coal liquefaction is one of the backstop technologies that could potentially limit escalation of oil prices and mitigate the effects of transportation energy shortage that some authors have suggested could occur under peak oil. This is contingent on liquefaction production capacity becoming large enough to satiate the very large and growing demand for petroleum. Estimates of the cost of producing liquid fuels from coal suggest that domestic U.S. production of fuel from coal becomes cost-competitive with oil priced at around 35 USD per barrel, (break-even cost). This price, while above historical averages, is well below current oil prices. This makes coal a viable financial alternative to oil for the time being, although current production is small.

We bring you an in-depth focus on the emerging technology of Coal to Liquids. The report focuses on all aspects of the various processes involved in the CTL process, conversion processes utilized on natural gas, the major companies which are investing in this technology, the reasons for investing in CTL and the investment scenario in the technology, and the financial difficulties faced during financing of projects.

The report looks at the growth factors, challenges and barriers, the concept of using CTL fuel for transportation, the economic feasibility of CTL technologies and CTL projects, the effect of CTL on the energy market, and of course, the basics of Coal to Liquid technologies. A lot more awaits you inside this comprehensive intelligent analysis of CTL technology and market. 
 
 
 
Commercialization of Coal to Liquids Technology
 
The United States has has the world’s largest coal reserves with an estimated 268 billion recoverable tons. Converting just 5 percent of the U.S. coal reserves to Fisher-Tropsch fuels would equate to the existing U.S. crude reserves of 29 billion barrels. The U.S. could virtually double our nation’s domestic motor fuel supply without drilling a single a well or building a new refinery.

The technology of producing a liquid fuel from coal or natural gas is hardly new. The Fischer-Tropsch process was developed by German researchers Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch in 1923 and used by Germany and Japan during World War II to produce alternative fuels. Indeed, in 1944, Germany produced 6.5 million tons, or 124,000 barrels a day.

CTL fuel is already in use elsewhere, like South Africa, where it meets 30 percent of transportation fuel needs.

In addition to being cheaper than oil, advocates point out that the fuel is environmentally friendlier and would also help America wean itself of foreign oil imports.

This report provides an overview of the CTL market and examines the potential, technologies, and economics of the commercialization of CTL fuel. It details 14 real-life projects and profiles major industry players.
 
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The synopses ring true with much of what we've already reported and documented for you from independent, non-commercial sources. These three studies might present a usefully-organized and professionally-presented accumulation of the available data.

Japan Recycles CO2 to Petrochemicals

 
 
Herein, from Japan, we have yet more credible affirmation that Carbon Dioxide, as emitted from various sources, including human agricultural activity and natural volcanism, is a raw material resource of potential value.
 
The excerpt: 

Document title

Reduction of carbon dioxide to petrochemical intermediates

Authors

KANECO S; IIBA K.; OHTA K ; MIZUNO T.

Affiliations

Department of Chemistry for Materials, Faculty of Engineering, Mie University, Tsu, Mie, JAPON

Abstract

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 at the Cu electrode was investigated in methanol-based electrolyte using various cesium supporting salts as the ionophore at an extremely low temperature (243 K). Cesium acetate, chloride, bromide, iodide, and thiocyanate were used as the ionophore. The main products from CO2 by electrochemical reduction were methane, ethylene, ethane, carbon monoxide, and formic acid. In the methanol-based electrolyte using cesium supporting salts, except for acetate, the Faradaic efficiency for ethylene was larger than that for methane. This research can contribute to large-scale manufacturing of petrochemical intermediate products, such as methane and ethylene, from readily available and cheap raw materials; CO2-saturated methanol from industrial absorbers (the Rectisol process). Thus the synthesis of hydrocarbons by the electrochemical reduction of CO2 may be of practical interest for fuel production, storage of solar energy, and production of intermediate materials for the petrochemical industry.

Journal Title

Energy sources; ISSN 0090-8312   CODEN EGYSAO; 2000, vol. 22, n2, pp. 127-135 (12 ref.); Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia, PA, 1973" 
 
So, in 1973, we knew that CO2 had potential use in "the synthesis of hydrocarbons ... and production of intermediate materials for the petrochemical industry".
 
And, we are still trying to either tax our coal-use industries out of existence, through Cap&Trade shell games, or force them to help Big Oil squeeze more of the stuff he extorts us all with out of his nearly-depleted reservoirs, through enforced geologic CO2 sequestration?
 
How much money have we wasted on debating all of that nonsense, over the past 36 years, when we could have been building factories both to convert our abundant domestic coal into the liquid fuels we need and to recycle Carbon Dioxide into other "hydrocarbons ... and ... materials for the petrochemical industry"?
 

UCal & Methanol to Gasoline

 
 
Since we earlier posted information from West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh, and others, documenting that methane could be directly produced from coal and then synthesized into the liquid fuel, methanol, we wanted to send further confirmation, from a source much less likely to be suspected of coal partisanship, that methanol, once obtained from coal, aside from it's great utility as a plastics manufacturing raw material, can be further synthesized into gasoline.
 
Note that coal is identified, by this California institution of higher learning, as the key source of methanol.
 
As follows:
 
"University of California San Diego
 
During the energy crisis of the 1970's and 1980's, alternatives to fuels derived from crude oil became necessary. Up to that time, only two processes of fuel synthesis had any commercial significance. The first was the Bergius process that used an oil/coal slurry and an iron catalyst to produce synthetic crude oil. The second was the Fisher-Tropsch process, which produced hydrocarbons from coal. Both of these processes produced hydrocarbons with poor selectivity and quality. This problem was overcome by the Mobil methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) process. The Mobil process of methanol conversion over a highly selective zeolite catalyst makes possible the synthesis of a high quality, high octane gasoline.
 
The MTG process was discovered by accident. The zeolite ZSM-5 was being used to convert methanol into a fuel additive. The process instead produced di-methyl-ether, which with increasing space time next produced olefins (alkenes), and then paraffins (alkanes) and aromatics. The final mixture of paraffins and aromatics is commonly known as gasoline."
 
So, knowing that, one way or another, directly or indirectly, we can efficiently extract methanol from our domestic coal; and, then, catalyze methanol into gasoline, why aren't we?
 

WVU & Indirect Coal Conversion Technology

 
We've several times reported on WVU's "West Virginia Process" for the direct liquefaction of coal, to which, as we've also reported, China has, alarmingly, applied for patent rights.
 
That's a matter we'll leave to parties who should, if they have been following our posts, know of by now. And, if it is a matter of concern, we'll trust them to be taking all appropriate action.
 
In any case, West Virginia University, in seeming partnership with the US Bureau of Mines, has also developed a technology that could be employed as the first step in yet another indirect coal conversion process, as evidenced in the enclosed link, with the excerpt following below.
 
To relate the importance of this technology to the topic of liquid fuel, we'll include two additional links, from a collection of other universities, with excerpts, also following: 
 
(And yeah, if you wonder why no one in Coal Country has heard of this, yet another, WVU coal conversion technology achievement, it was published more than thirty years ago in Czechoslovakia, for Pete' sake.) 
 
"Title: Simulation of a reactor system for the conversion of coal to methane by the hydrane process
 
Author: Feldmann, H.F.; Simons, W.H.; Wen, C.Y.; Yavorsky, P.M.  
 
Date: January, 1972
 
Publication Information: International congress of chemical engineering, chemical equipment design and automation, CHISA '72, Prague, Czechoslovakia, Sep 1972
 
Research Organization: Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, Pa. (USA); West Virginia Univ., Morgantown (USA)
 
Abstract: The major barriers to the development of a process that directly converts raw coal to methane by reacting the coal with hydrogen are the extreme agglomerating tendencies of raw coal in hydrogen atmospheres at the high pressures required to produce methane and the problems associated with the temperature control necessitated by the exothermicity of the hydrogasification process. It is shown how the application of chemical reactor modeling and equipment design to this problem not only establishes the feasibility of the commercial system, but also isolates the uncertainties in scale-up and thereby leads to the planning of a logical program for scaling up to commercial size. The study led to the conclusion that the Hydrane Process is feasible on a commercial scale and can be carried out in large-scale reactors. These reactor designs were also used to define the economics of the process."
 
So, we can convert coal into methane "on a commercial scale" in a process that "can be carried out in large-scale reactors".
 
Once we have that methane, we can convert it into liquid methanol, as we've previously documented, and as two groups of university affirm in the reports following:  
 
 
"From methane to methanol

30 October 2006

Ionic liquids could be the key to a commercial process for converting natural gas to methanol.

Using remote reserves of natural gas, whose main component is methane, is currently a challenge. By converting the gas to a liquid, such as methanol, it becomes much easier to store and transport.

Platinum based catalysts are known to be effective for direct methane to methanol conversion. Now, Yongchun Tang and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology's Power, Environmental and Energy Research Center in Covina, California, US, have come up with an improvement on previous catalytic methods. The researchers used platinum salts, such as platinum chloride, dissolved in ionic liquids and concentrated sulfuric acid to selectively convert methane to methanol. 

Tang's system is relatively high yielding, and the catalyst is not inhibited by the water produced during the reaction - a problem for previous methods like the Catalytica system, developed by catalyst company Catalytica Advanced Technologies, California, US.

'We hope that this work will lead to a cost effective and field-deployable commercial process converting gas to liquid in the near future,' said Tang. 'But first we must improve the performance of the current systems.' 

Roy Periana, at the University of Southern California, US, is one of the inventors of the Catalytica system. 'I am always very intrigued by possible improvements to that system. If ionic liquids could be used to minimize water inhibition as well as increase catalyst rates, this could be a substantial improvement that could eventually push us closer to developing commercial catalysts,' he said.

References

Z Li, J Cheng, M Haught and Y Tang, Chem. Commun., 2006"

and


"Key Step Made Towards Turning Methane Gas Into Liquid Fuel

ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2009) — Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have taken an important step in converting methane gas to a liquid, potentially making it more useful as a fuel and as a source for making other chemicals.

Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is plentiful and is an attractive fuel and raw material for chemicals because it is more efficient than oil, produces less pollution and could serve as a practical substitute for petroleum-based fuels until renewable fuels are widely useable and available.

However, methane is difficult and costly to transport because it remains a gas at temperatures and pressures typical on the Earth's surface.

Now UNC and UW scientists have moved closer to devising a way to convert methane to methanol or other liquids that can easily be transported, especially from the remote sites where methane is often found. The finding is published in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Science."

The above article on the work at UW and UNC is full of caveats and cautions. But, it confirms other research we've documented that methane can be converted into methanol, and it can be done efficiently, though the researchers at these two institutions seem afraid, for some reason, to say so. Their schools receive generous grants from Big Oil, would be our guess.

But we will remind you of a rare Big Oil positive achievement: Exxon-Mobil, using a zeolite catalyst, have developed a commercial technology, "The MTG Process", wherein methanol is converted into gasoline.

So:

WVU, with the United States Bureau of Mines, more than 30 years ago, said we can convert coal into methane; but, they whispered it very, very quietly behind what was still, at that time, the Iron Curtain.

The University of Washington, USC, et. al., say we can convert methane to methanol. Exxon-Mobil says we can convert methanol to gasoline.

Pitt Studies Coal Syngas


The University of Pittsburgh, a member, with WVU, of the Consortium For Fossil Fuel Science, has as we've earlier documented, also worked on the development of coal-to-liquid conversion technologies.
 
Since we documented for you that WVU has developed technology that could be employed for indirect coal liquefaction, by showing that methane can be synthesized from coal, we wanted to document that the University of Pittsburgh, as well, has studied the derivation of synthesis gas from coal, and how useful hydrocarbons can be manufactured from that synthesis gas.
 
The excerpt: 
 
"Reactions of synthesis gas 

Irving Wender

Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA 


February 1999.

Abstract

The use of synthesis gas (syngas) offers the opportunity to furnish a broad range of environmentally clean fuels and chemicals. There has been steady growth in the traditional uses of syngas. Almost all hydrogen gas is manufactured from syngas and there has been a tremendous spurt in the demand for this basic chemical; indeed, the chief use of syngas is in the manufacture of hydrogen for a growing number of purposes. Methanol not only remains the second largest consumer of syngas but has shown remarkable growth as part of the methyl ethers used as octane enhancers in automotive fuels. The Fischer-Tropsch synthesis remains the third largest consumer of syngas, mostly for transportation fuels but also as a growing feedstock source for the manufacture of chemicals, including polymers. Future growth in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis may take place outside the continental United States. The hydroformylation of olefins (the oxo reaction), a completely chemical use of syngas, is the fourth largest use of carbon monoxide and hydrogen mixtures; research and industrial application in this field continue to grow steadily. A direct application of syngas as fuel (and eventually also for chemicals) that promises to increase is its use for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) units for the generation of electricity (and also chemicals) from coal, petroleum coke or heavy residuals. In the period 2005–2015, the amount of syngas employed in this manner may approach that used for all other specific purposes. Syngas is the principal source of carbon monoxide, which is used in an expanding list of so-called carbonylation reactions."

Although "coal" is not specifically mentioned, for whatever unfathomable reason, we hope our readers understand that, in 1999, that's where the "syngas, mostly for transportation fuels", only at that time in South Africa, was coming from. And, Fischer-Tropsch technology is one of the several developed in Europe early in the last century, as we've thoroughly documented, to produce liquid transportation fuels from coal.

We'll emphasize that complete passage: "The Fischer-Tropsch synthesis remains the third largest consumer of syngas, mostly for transportation fuels but also as a growing feedstock source for the manufacture of chemicals, including polymers."

Note that, in 1999, it was recognized, in Pittsburgh, that coal could be a feedstock not just for fuels, but for other "chemicals, including polymers", as well.

Why is it, then, that, ten years later, we, in the very heart of Coal Country, are still suffering foreign petroleum producer extortion to supply our liquid fuel and plastics manufacturing raw material needs?