U of Pitt Liquefies Coal / Recycles CO2



We reveal herein yet another Coal Country institute of higher learning which has demonstrated that, not only can coal be liquefied into the transportation fuels we are in need of, but cellulose, as would be derived from photosynthetic botanical sources, can be liquefied along with coal, to increase liquid fuel yields, and provide an inherent route of Carbon Dioxide recycling, with an element of sustainability tossed in for good measure.
 
Excerpt as follows:
 
"COPROCESSING OF CELLULQSIC WASTE AND COAL
H. lung, I. W. Tiemey and I. Wender
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15261

Introduction
Paper and other cellulosic wastes constitute more than half of landfill volumes. These
materials could be a significant energy source’; if is the object of this work to find ways of
converting these huge volumes of waste to liquid transportation fuels.
It is well known, of course, that coal can be converted to liquid fuels. There are a
number of ways of achieving this. A major route from coal to liquid fuels is by direct
liquefaction in the presence of hydrogen or hydrogen donor solvents. Experiments have also
demonstrated that cellulosic materials and biomass can be converted to oil in the same way.
 
.
Summary
Based on an exploratory study of coprocessing of paper and subbituminous Wyodak coal,
the following conclusions were drawn. A possible desirable effect of paper in coprocessing was
observed in both the H,/tetralin/Mo system and the CO/H,O/alkali system at 400°C. More
specifically, the conversion of coal was increased due to the addition of paper in the
H,/tetralin/Mo system, but the quality of the product Seems to be unchanged. However, very
little increase in coal conversion was observed when coprocessing in the C0/H20/alkali system,
while the product quality of coal was significantly improved (more oil and less asphaltenes). No
effect of paper was observed at 325°C in the H,/tetralin/Mo system."
 
First of all, cellulosic wastes would include Intel's and News-Register's, whether post- or pre-reading we'll leave to your many fans to decide. But, "the conversion of coal was increased due to the addition of paper", so your, and other of our addressee's, rags could, one way or another, serve some good purpose.
 
"Cellulosic material" would include a lot of other things, as well, in addition to "paper", such as algal biomass, as could be grown in bio-reactors connected to a coal plant's exhaust flue, after the bio-lipids, for conversion into diesel fuel, had been extracted; or, sawdust, as we have earlier documented as a raw material that has been researched for liquid fuel conversion potentials. 
 
And, we want to point out that these Pitt researchers are using the hydrogen-donor solvent, "tetralin", as is specified by WVU in their West Virginia direct coal liquefaction Process. We have cited other sources who report tetralin as being an effective hydrogen-donor for the liquefaction of both coal and cellulose.
 
Another thing: The "subbituminous Wyodak coal" used in these Pittsburgh developments might be comparable in organic content, relative to inorganic "ash",  to some older WV accumulations of coal mine wastes, which do contain a lot of organic material, but which were discarded in the old days from run-of-mine product because it wasn't of high-enough bituminous quality for the Pittsburgh and Wheeling steel mills. 
 
Almost finally, though, we have herein reported, by reputable United States researchers, yet another demonstrated process wherein coal can be liquefied into transportation fuels, and, at the same time, Carbon Dioxide, as is generated, for instance, by the combustion of coal to generate electricity, can be recycled through a combination of biological and technical processes into even more liquid fuels. 
 
We do conclude with this quote from the Pitt researchers: "It is well known, of course, that coal can be converted to liquid fuels."

Japan Coal + Cellulose Coliquefaction / CO2 Recycling Synergy

 

Following up on our report of work at the University of Pittsburgh, concerning the potential for liquefying coal in combination with botanical cellulose to produce liquid transportation fuels, while thus recycling Carbon Dioxide, we submit this report, from Japan, on the same technology, to illustrate that it is well-understood, and that the work at Pitt was not just an isolated academic exercise.
 
The excerpt:
 
"Co-liquefaction of coal and cellulose in supercritical water 

Y. Matsumura, H. Nonaka, H. Yokura, A. Tsutsumi and K. Yoshida

University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan;

January 1999

Abstract

Co-liquefaction of biomass and coal in supercritical water is proposed with the intention that hydrogen matching between biomass and coal takes place, resulting in enhanced coal liquefaction and preferable liquefaction products. A semi-batch packed-bed reactor is employed to co-liquefy cellulose utilized for a model compound of biomass and Ishikari coal in supercritical water at 673 K and 25 MPa. No interaction between coal and cellulose is observed for the production of residue and water-insoluble product, judging from the yield and its composition. On the contrary, the yield of the water-soluble product increased for the case of co-liquefaction. Both hydrogen to carbon ratio and oxygen to carbon ratio of the water-soluble product increased by co-liquefaction. The mechanism for this interaction is proposed based on the addition reaction of compounds derived from cellulose with coal-derived compounds to increase the recoverable yield of the water-soluble product."

"Supercritical water", without being too specific, is just water heated beyond the boiling point but kept pressurized enough so that it can't turn to steam.

In other words, the biomass cellulose is intended, as we have earlier documented in other reports, to serve both as a donor of Hydrogen for the liquefaction of coal, and as a route of Carbon recycling.

And, subsequent to this and our other recent submissions concerning the synergistic potentials inherent in the co-liquefaction of coal and cellulose, we wanted to point out that, as with coal, US patents exist which describe the liquefaction of cellulose, and which, like some coal liquefaction technologies, present that the by-products of liquefaction can serve to increase the efficiency of liquefying additional raw material feed, be it coal or cellulose. To that end, we remind you of the following, earlier-submitted, US Patent:

"Title: Liquefaction of Cellulose

Patent: US5336819

Issue Date: August 09, 1994

Abstract: The conversion of cellulose to hydrocarbon fuel, particularly fuel oil can be carried out using a polycyclic hydrogen donor substance. The present invention rests on the discovery that a light cut of the product oil can be used in place of the polycyclic hydrogen donor substance thus making it much easier to run the process continuously."

One point being: We have earlier documented that "anthracene oil", a coal tar derivative, can serve to enhance the direct liquefaction of coal in a hydrogen donor solvent, such as the "tetralin" specified by West Virginia University, in their WV Process for Coal Liquefaction.
 
The conversion of both cellulose and coal, to liquid hydrocarbons, can, thus, be conducted concurrently, and the conversion process can be enhanced and made more efficient, perhaps almost in a self-sustaining way, as in: "a light cut of the product oil can be used ... (to make it) ... much easier to run the process continuously".
 
And, it would be a "process" that runs "continuously" to produce domestic liquid fuels from our most abundant natural resource, coal, while recycling the most abundant and contention-inspiring by-product of coal use, Carbon Dioxide, through the inclusion of renewable and environmentally-correct botanical cellulose.

Enhancement of Coal Liquefaction

 

Pursuant to our most recent submissions concerning coal liquefaction developments in Pittsburgh and Japan, and some earlier, that made reference to the utility of some coal oils, derived from coal through distillation processes, "coking", in the synthesis of liquid hydrocarbons from coal, and, in a similar fashion, from cellulose, we present the two enclosed articles, from researchers in Spain, confirming the synergies that can be achieved by extracting coal oils and then using them as beneficial additives in coal liquefaction processes.
 
Excerpts from the above link, with an additional link and excerpt following: 

"Document title

Coal liquefaction with anthracene oil. Influence of solvent pretreatment, temperature, catalyst and pressure

Authors

CABALLERO B. M. ; DE MARCO I. ; CHOMON M. J. ; LEGARRETA J. A. ;

Affiliation

Univ. País Vasco, escuela ing. industriales telecomunicación Bilbao, dep. ing. química medio ambiente, 48013 Bilbao, ESPAGNE

Abstract

The effect of solvent pretreatment, temperature, a CoMo/Al2O3 catalyst and pressure on coal liquefaction with anthracene oil has been evaluated. The experiments were conducted in a 500 ml autoclave with 10 g of a Spanish subbituminous A coal, 30 g of solvent, 1 hour reaction time and 400 rpm stirring speed. The liquefaction products were fractionated into oils, asphaltenes and preasphaltenes using pentane, toluene and THF as extractive solvents. The behaviour of anthracene oil as coal liquefaction solvent is very much enhanced by prehydrogenating it and by the addition of an active catalyst. The influence of temperature depends on the operating conditions such as solvent pretreatment, catalyst, pressure etc

Journal

Fuel science & technology international   ISSN 0884-3759   CODEN FSCTEG; 1994, vol. 12, n7-8, pp. 1067-1079 (28 ref.)

Publisher

Dekker, New York, NY, ETATS-UNIS  (1986-1996) (Revue)
 
 
 

Document title

Hydrogen-transferring liquefaction of two different rank coals employing hydrogenated anthracene oil as a donor solvent Univ. Oviedo, dep. ing. quimica, 33071 Ovieda, Espagne

Authors

ROSAL R. ; DIEZ F. V. ; SASTRE H. ;

Affiliation

Univ. Oviedo, dep. ing. quimica, 33071 Ovieda, Espagne

Abstract

The liquefaction of two coals, a low-volatile bituminous coal and a lignite, was studied using a hydrogenated anthracene oil as donor solvent. An inert atmosphere was employed to ensure that all the hydrogen incorporated by coal was supplied by hydrogenated compounds from the anthracene oil. Reaction products were separated according to their solubility and the following fractions were obtained: oils, asphaltenes, preasphaltenes, and an unreacted coal organic matter. The amount of hydrogenated compounds in the oil was related to the kinetics of coal solubilization

Journal

Industrial & engineering chemistry research   ISSN 0888-5885   CODEN IECRED; 1992, vol. 31, n10, pp. 2407-2412 (24 ref.) 

Publisher

American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, ETATS-UNIS  (1987) (Revue)"
 
Note that both these articles, though from Spanish researchers working in Spain, were published in the United States, in English, more than a decade ago.
 
In any case, they, as with the earlier references we submitted, including some much earlier describing the utility of coke oven gas and tars in coal liquefaction processes, demonstrate that even coal by-products can be employed in the process of converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons for the purposes of liquid fuel and organic chemical synthesis. Moreover, they are evidence, in addition to our most-recently submitted articles from Pittsburgh and Japan, that the processes of coal liquefaction, and the enhancement of those liquefaction processes, is well-understood, among certain circles on at least three continents, essentially world-wide.
 
It seems far past time that understanding was extended to the public at large, especially the US public, and, most especially, the Coal Country public.

$30 Oil from Coal & CO2

 

We've already alerted you to the work at the University of Texas - Arlington, on the liquefaction of Texas brown coal, lignite, into liquid fuels.
 
However, their interests and their research are multifaceted and include the conversion, into liquid fuels, not just of coal, but of Carbon Dioxide and other resources.
 
The excerpt follows, and ranges over a number of related topics, but we'll append a brief summary comment:

"Energy revolution: $1 million in federal funding boosts research on alternative fuels

Mention the possibility of $30-a-barrel oil and most people will jump on the idea. Likewise, consider those millions of tons of harmful carbon dioxide spewing from industrial plants and ponder whether the emissions could be converted to an affordable hydrocarbon fuel.

Those and other ideas being researched at UT Arlington’s Center for Renewable Energy Science and Technology (CREST) are so intriguing that the U.S. Department of Energy will provide $1 million in funding this academic year.

So what about that $30 oil?

Chemistry Professor Krishnan Rajeshwar is co-director of the Center for Renewable Energy Science and Technology. The center developed a microrefinery process that converts non-food vegetable oils to biodiesel.

“It’s really a synthetic oil, the equivalent of heavy crude, made from Texas lignite,” says Richard Billo, associate dean of engineering research and CREST co-director.

Although oil is a diminishing commodity with the biggest reserves in other countries, Texas is estimated to have more than a 200-year supply of lignite coal. Supplies elsewhere in the world are also vast. Problem is, your car doesn’t burn coal. It uses fuel refined from petroleum crude. Oil.

While coal is also a hydrocarbon, it isn’t liquid. But it can be converted to a liquid, the equivalent of heavy crude oil, then transported to and refined in existing Texas refineries. The resulting gasoline, diesel and jet fuel are then distributed within a vast existing infrastructure—something not currently possible with, say, a transition to hydrogen fuel.

The Germans successfully converted coal to synthetic oil in World War II using the Fischer-Tropsch process, notes Krishnan Rajeshwar, associate dean of the College of Science and CREST co-director. But even with modern methods, Fischer-Tropsch is still expensive, which is why CREST continues to research an alternative fuel technology using microfluidics.

Drs. Rajeshwar and Billo are convinced that a microfluidic reactor can convert coal to synthetic oil at a fraction of the cost of the German technology. Billo says microrefineries built at a low cost can produce large amounts of synthetic oil in a fraction of the time of existing Fischer-Tropsch refining processes.

“The exciting work being done by researchers in the colleges of Engineering and Science to turn coal into oil could revolutionize the way we generate energy in this country.”

Indeed, a similar microrefinery process that converts non-food vegetable oils to biodiesel fuel patented by UT Arlington researchers will be used commercially for the first time in 2009. It reduces from 90 minutes to four minutes the time needed to refine biodiesel fuel.

“I estimate a microrefinery would produce as much crude as a factory built along the competing Fischer-Tropsch technology for about 20 percent of the capital cost of construction,” Billo says. “The technology has come so far that the main area of research involves study of the appropriate catalysts and how to use them.”

A fascinating component of the proposed technology is that it also provides possibilities related to oil-rich shales and tar sands in the Rocky Mountain states, Canada and elsewhere in the world.

“There’s a trillion barrels of oil just in the shales of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado,” Rajeshwar says. “The same process will work with shale, absolutely.”

Such talk impresses U.S. Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, who initially convinced the team to extend its successful research in the biodiesel microrefinery process to the conversion of Texas lignite to crude.

“We can keep oil and gasoline prices consumer-friendly if we use and support developing technology to unlock energy supplies here at home,” Barton says. “UT Arlington is playing a big role in this process. The exciting work being done by researchers in the colleges of Engineering and Science to turn coal into oil could revolutionize the way we generate energy in this country.”

Barton points out that Texas has large reserves of lignite coal and says that transforming it into oil would lower the price of gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum-based products.

“It only makes sense to convert Texas coal to oil at a cost of $30 a barrel, instead of importing it from Saudi Arabia at a much higher cost,” he says. “I’m really encouraging Professor Billo to continue to make connections with those in the coal industry.”

Though refining the technology for converting coal and oil shales to oil is a CREST priority, converting smokestack carbon dioxide to hydrocarbon fuels is also high on the research list.

“The idea that we can dispose of massive quantities of greenhouse gases like CO2 by piping them underground or into the oceans is not very practical,” Rajeshwar says. Better to capture carbon dioxide at power plants and cement plants, convert it to carbon monoxide and then add hydrogen from a renewable source like the water trapped inside lignite coal to make what’s called syngas.

“What’s produced is a liquid hydrocarbon fuel—synthetic oil—from which we can then make any conventional fuel, like gasoline or diesel,” Rajeshwar says. “The oil produced is very similar to that produced from coal.”

“This is not hypothetical academia,” Billo says. “What we’re doing here is producing real solutions to this country acquiring sustainable and affordable energy.” "

So, “This is not hypothetical academia”, as the environmentalists and Big Oil might have us believe. It is a genuine refining of the very real technology "for converting coal and oil shales to oil". Moreover, "converting smokestack carbon dioxide to hydrocarbon fuels is also high on the research list".

One of these Texas researchers even alludes, in more polite, collegiate phraseology, to what we've described as "the enforced pumping of a valuable resource down a geologic rat hole to subsidize Big Oil's scavenging efforts", i.e., CO2 sequestration, by saying that "the idea ... is not very practical". It would be far preferable "to capture carbon dioxide at power plants and cement plants, convert it to carbon monoxide and then add hydrogen" and then "we can then make any conventional fuel, like gasoline or diesel".

To summarize these Texas experts: Starting with Coal and/or Carbon Dioxide, "we can ... make any conventional fuel, like gasoline or diesel" and do it "at a cost of $30 a barrel".

And:

“It only makes sense to convert ... coal to oil at a cost of $30 a barrel, instead of importing it from Saudi Arabia at a much higher cost."

USAF - U-Dayton Synfuels Synergy


 
The US Air Force's research, conducted through a network of university laboratories, into the conversion of domestic US coal into liquid fuels, has been well-documented in our dispatches to the WV Coal Association.
 
To a lesser extent, we have reported their corollary research into the synthesis of jet fuel from Carbon Dioxide-recycling algae; although the US Navy, as documented, is developing fuel synthesis technologies based on the direct conversion, the chemical recycling, of CO2 into hydrocarbons, and, through proxies, holds several patents on those technologies.
 
One of the Air Force's primary research partners in both their coal-to-liquid and their "indirect" CO2-recycling efforts is the University of Dayton, situated as it is near Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Base.
 
Herein is a report summarizing some of the University's efforts.
 
The excerpt: 

"Unlocking the Power of Algae

University of Dayton researchers are looking into algae as a way to wean the U.S. from foreign oil.
 
August 20, 2009 - Algae – the tiny scourge of backyard ponds and lakes – is destined to be a mighty hero in efforts to reduce carbon emissions headed for the atmosphere and wean America from its dependence on foreign oil, according to scientists at the University of Dayton Research Institute working on a two-year, $980,000 Air Force pollution-reduction contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

“It’s a beautifully symbiotic system,” said Sukh Sidhu, Ph.D., who leads the Sustainable Environmental Technologies group in the University of Dayton Research Institute’s Energy and Environmental Engineering division. “Algae feed on carbon dioxide and convert it to a highly desirable lipid. So we can capture carbon dioxide from stacks of coal boilers and other combustion processes before it’s released into the atmosphere and run it through algae growing systems. In turn, we can extract the oil for a variety of uses. We consider this a far better alternative for dealing with carbon dioxide emissions than geosequestration, where carbon dioxide is pumped deep into the earth.”
 
“You would need to take every single acre of food and nonfood cropland that exists in the United States today, multiply it by eight and dedicate it solely to corn to produce enough corn-based ethanol to meet even half the nation’s transport fuel needs. But only 1 percent of the equivalent of existing acreage would be needed to produce the same amount of biodiesel, jet fuel and ethanol from algae,” Sidhu said, noting that no actual cropland need be disturbed to farm algae, which does not require arable land to grow."
 
We interrupt the excerpt in order to emphasize, to call attention to, both the foregoing caution against attempting to use food crops and farmland for ethanol-based liquid fuel, and the concept embodied in the concluding paragraph, following: 

"Tom Naguy, senior program manager in AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, said algae will be used to reduce the carbon footprint of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s new Assured Aerospace Fuels Research Facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Researchers from the University of Dayton Research Insitute and AFRL are working to determine best practices for creating jet fuel out of coal and biomass. Algae can be used in that program as both a fuel feedstock and to sequester carbon dioxide in the process."
 
In sum: Our Air Force is "creating jet fuel out of coal". And, "algae can be used ... as both a feedstock (for use in the coal-to-liquid technology) and to sequester carbon dioxide in the process" - "a far better alternative for dealing with carbon dioxide emissions than geosequestration".