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Big Oil Makes Methane from Coal

 
First, the excerpt; with comment following:
 
"Title: Direct Production of Methane and Benzene from Coal
Authors: Pelofsky, A.L., Greene, M.I., Ladelfa, C.J.
Affiliation: Cities Service R&D Co., Cranbury, NJ
Publication: Energy Communications, vol. 3, no. 3, 1977, pp 253-272
Date: 1977
Abstract: Experimental data obtained when processing a North Dakota lignite in a bench-scale experimental system utilizing the Cities Service flash hydrogenation process for the production of hydrocarbons from coal are reported. Pulverized coal particles are heated rapidly with hot hydrogen. The hydrogenation reaction has a 50-900 millisecond residence time and occurs at commercially feasible reactor pressures (500-3000 PST). Volatile products are rapidly quenched to prevent decomposition. Carbon conversions of 80% have been obtained, with liquid yields of as high as 16%. The liquid product is essentially 94% pure benzene; the gas obtained is primarily methane and ethane."
 
In 1977, this New Jersey oil company demonstrated that low-grade coal, lignite, could be converted at a rate of 80% into gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons, very quickly - less than a second - and at "commercially feasible reactor pressures".
 
"Benzene", which was generated in a nearly pure form, though toxic, has applications as a raw material in plastics and other organic chemical synthesis.
 
By far the major part of the carbon in the lignite coal was converted into methane and ethane. Both are hydrocarbon gases which can be, through established processes, converted into their liquid alcohol counterparts, methanol and ethanol. Both of those alcohols - through known, and even commercialized, processes we have earlier reported to you, such as the"MTG", methanol-to-gasoline, Process owned by Exxon-Mobil - can be converted into gasoline.
 
And, interestingly, in 1977, Cities Service had a named process: the "Cities Service flash hydrogenation process for the production of hydrocarbons from coal" to convert coal into useful hydrocarbons.
 
In 1982, Cities Service, the developers of this coal conversion technology, were acquired by the oil giant, Occidental Petroleum. We thus need not wonder why we haven't heard of their "Flash Hydrogenation" process - yet another technology for converting abundant coal into needed fuels that is available; and, which could help the United States to achieve some level of domestic fuel self-sufficiency; thereby freeing herself of overseas drains on her economy, and costly, unwelcome military obligations to foreign regimes that are not, in the first place, all that friendly to her.

CO2 Better for Plastics

 
We have lately been documenting how the valuable co-product of coal use, Carbon Dioxide, can be utilized in the synthesis of gaseous and liquid fuels. We had also introduced some technologies wherein CO2 can be used as a raw material for plastics manufacturing. Herein is yet more documentation attesting to the value of Carbon Dioxide for that purpose; and, it's value is greater than at first might appear.
 
Additional explanation follows the excerpt: 

"Enrivonmentally Benign Urethane and Urea Synthesis in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Author(s): YOSHIDA MASAAKI, SATO YOSHIKI, ABE MANABU, SATO AKINAO
(Utsunomiya University., Faculty of Engineering, Japan)
 
Journal: Nippon Kagakkai Koen Yokoshu; Vol. 82nd; Page 117(2002)
 
Abstract: Instead of organic solvents which are toxic and flammable, when we used supercritical carbon dioxide which is none toxic and inflammable, the organic reactions were more effective and selective. On the case of urethane and urea synthesis, supercritical carbon dioxide was a direct raw material as a phosgene replacement."
 
Urethanes are extraordinarily useful organic compounds. The paint on your car is likely to be based on urethane. The pillow you lay your head on at night is likely to be urethane foam. And, as we've, in other places, for other reasons, documented, the Federal Highways Administration specifies two-component urethane grout as the best technology to stop groundwater leaks into road tunnels.It is what the State of WV should be using to rehabilitate the Wheeling Tunnels.
 
Unfortunately, in current manufacturing processes, the production of urethane can start with some dangerous chemicals; phosgene, otherwise known, and once used in warfare, as "mustard gas", among them. Worse, perhaps, phosgene is manufactured from chlorine gas, itself a decidedly unpleasant and dangerous material. Some chemical manufacturing facilities in the Ohio Valley manufacture urethanes, using those materials, and some unhealthy situations have, in the past, occurred.
 
In this technology, explained by Japanese researchers, Carbon Dioxide, as arises from coal use, serves as a very safe, even benign, replacement for some very dangerous stuff in the manufacture of some very valuable commercial products.
 
Wouldn't it be far better to use a relatively benign co-product of coal use, whose only immediate metabolic effect is to tickle your nose when you take a sip of the bubbly, to manufacture valuable urethanes and other plastics?
 
Carbon Dioxide is a valuable by-product of our coal use. We should be focused more on figuring out how to profitably use it, rather than on how to expensively stuff it all done geologic rat holes, thus subsidizing the greedy petroleum industry's oil-scavenging efforts; or, on how to tax the producers of it, our productive coal industries, out of existence via deceptive shell games like Cap & Trade.

CoalTL Wins Nobel Prize - in 1931

 
We have thoroughly documented that multiple and various technologies exist which would enable the United States to attain a level of liquid fuel self-sufficiency by converting her abundant coal into liquid fuels. The Fischer-Tropsch method of coal-to-liquid conversion seems to be the one the public at large is most aware of, but we have documented for you other processes of coal conversion, including at least two originating in the United States: The (Lewis) Karrick Process, developed by the US Bureau of Mines, and the West Virginia Process invented by WVU.
 
But, it is one of the lesser-known coal-to-liquid conversion technologies, developed many years ago in Europe, which was, like Sabatier's technology for recycling Carbon Dioxide into fuel, given the distinction of being awarded what is, perhaps, the world's most prestigious acknowledgement of scientific achievement, the Nobel Prize.
 
Like much, though, about the entire subject of converting coal into liquid fuels, the award was obscured and hidden; disguised by the way in which it was made and by how it was labeled.
 
In 1931, the Nobel Committee awarded their Prize, in Chemistry, to joint recipients who independently developed similar technologies referred to, by the Committee, generically, as "High Pressure Techniques".
 
It is only in the actual Presentation Speech, made by one "Professor W. Palmar, Member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences", on December 10, 1931, that what the Prize was actually being awarded for becomes clear. 
 
Excerpts from that speech follow. Make very special note of the second paragraph. Additional comment follows: 

"The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1931

Presentation Speech

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Under Alfred Nobel's will, the Nobel Prizes are to be awarded to those who have been of the greatest benefit to mankind and, particularly in respect of the Prize for Chemistry, it is stipulated that this shall go to the person who has made the most important discovery or improvement in chemistry.

The purpose of this work was to resolve a problem which, in importance, can be compared with the nitrogen problem, namely the manufacture of oils and liquid fuels from solid coal, such as pit coal and brown coal (lignite) - which is also known as liquefaction of coal. The products mentioned, which consist, in various proportions, of carbon and hydrogen and which are therefore referred to as hydrocarbons, were considered necessary to modern living, with vehicles and ships being run on petrol and other liquid fuels. Since the natural stocks of petroleum are fairly restricted, we would sooner or later be faced with the need to restrict the use of oil for the purpose mentioned or even to stop using it altogether, unless methods were available whereby these oil products could be artificially made from other crude materials at an acceptable price.
 
According to the composition of the coal, it is possible in this way to extract 50 to 70% of the carbon contained in the raw material in the form of oils, of which benzine represents about one-third, the remainder comprising diesel oil, fuel oil, and asphalt, together with carbolic acid and other phenols.
 
At the outset, Bergius worked without catalysts. Since the commencement of collaboration between him and I.G. - or "Industrial Giant" as these letters have come to be interpreted in America - catalysts have been used. This collaboration with I.G., who were able to make available their tremendous experience in the field of high-pressure technique and contact substances, certainly promoted the extremely important development which the liquefaction of coal by Bergius' methods then underwent. In the giant Leuna plant founded in 1926, near Merseburg in Saxony, the year 1930 saw the production of no less than 250,000 tons of benzine from brown coal, of the carbon content of which no less than 80% was utilized in the form of oils. In Germany, a large plant was also set up for processing the residues of oil distillation and tar oils. Steps have also been taken towards co-operation with the oil syndicates in America, where the high-pressure method is applied to a considerable degree, especially in order to convert not readily volatile hydrocarbons or crude oil into far more valuable benzine. The ease with which the hydrogen treatment under pressure can be adapted to the various problems of the petroleum industry is obviously of the utmost importance. As far as our country is concerned, the possibility of obtaining oils from timber by high-pressure processing is of particular importance.
 
General Director Bergius. You undertook to tackle a problem which, in its importance for humanity, can be compared with the solution of the nitrogen question. You have shown how, by the injection of hydrogen under pressure, pit coal, brown coal, and other carbon-bearing materials can be processed to liquid fuels which are considered indispensable in modern life for the propulsion of ships and vehicles. You have thereby obviated the danger which threatened of exhaustion of petroleum deposits, an event which must have happened sooner or later. In your work, you arrived at the high-pressure method quite independently. On the basis of your work, a powerful industry has already been formed.

By virtue of this, the Academy wishes to thank you and congratulate you, and requests you to receive the distinction from the hands of His Majesty the King."

First of all, let's make note of the fact that, even as early as 1931, several problems had, as we have tediously documented and pointed out to be possible, been solved by the technology of converting coal into liquid fuels: The petroleum shortage, recognized even then, was "obviated" by the ability to liquefy coal. Sustainability was addressed through the applicability of coal conversion technology to, as we have many times documented to be practical, renewable resources, as in: "The ease with which the (technology) can be adapted to the various problems of the petroleum industry is obviously of the utmost importance. As far as our country is concerned, the possibility of obtaining oils from timber by high-pressure processing is of particular importance."

That potential of sustainability, of course, is in addition to the Committee's earlier award of the Nobel to Paul Sabatier for demonstrating that Carbon Dioxide could be recycled into methane.

In sum, it is clear: As early as 1931, the pending "oil crisis" and the issue of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide had both been, as confirmed by the unimpeachable Nobel Committee, solved. Coal could be converted into liquid fuels, and CO2 could be recycled.

Why, almost a century later, is that news not broadly known? And, why, now, are we not doing something about it all?

More Japan CO2 Recycling

 
We submit this information, from Japan, as further evidence that the technologies both to convert our abundant coal into needed liquid fuels and plastics manufacturing feed stocks, and to recycle the Carbon Dioxide by-product of our coal-use industries into similar valuable products, is real, substantial and, even, in certain circles, well-known and understood.
 
Herein is more illustration of how focused and detailed effort is being applied to improve the productivity and efficiency of Carbon Dioxide recycling. It is, perhaps, gratuitous to note that Methanol, as can be produced from CO2, is a valuable and useful organic chemical. It can be used as a liquid fuel itself, or employed as a raw material for plastics manufacture; or, through at least one commercial process, be converted into gasoline.
 
The excerpt:
 
"Title: Methanol Synthesis by Catalytic Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide on CuO-ZnO-Al2O3 and CuO-ZnO-Al2O3-Ga2O3-MgO Catalysts
 
Author: HIRANO MASAKI(Kansai Electr. Power Co., Inc., Tech. Res. Cent.)   IMAI TETSUYA(Mitsubishi Heavy Ind., Ltd., Hiroshima Res. & Dev. Cent.)   YASUTAKE TOSHINOBU(Mitsubishi Heavy Ind., Ltd., Hiroshima Res. & Dev. Cent.)   KURODA KENNOSUKE(Mitsubishijukogyo Purantojigyose)
 
Journal: Kagaku Kogaku Ronbunshu
 
Abstract: The purpose of the study is to develop a practical catalyst for the conversion of carbon dioxide to methanol by hydrogenation."
 
We've truncated the Abstract deliberately to excise a lot of technical jargon and chemical formulae. We invite our readers of a more technical bent to open the link and investigate further. The gist of it is this: These Japanese researchers were working to optimize the conditions of temperature, pressure and catalyst type to achieve to optimum yield of Methanol, from Carbon Dioxide, in the shortest time, with the least amount of energy input, and the longest catalyst life, possible.
 
Simply put: Carbon Dioxide can be effectively recycled into useful products. These Japanese researchers were making the process more efficient and more profitable.
 
Beats the heck out of stuffing all our coal plants' CO2 down geologic storage rat holes, or taxing those coal plants, through Cap & Trade, out of existence, doesn't it?

Coal Diesel Powers US Locomotive - In 1949: TIME

We're sending along two links in this dispatch, in case anyone wants to verify the sources. But, we've excerpted the texts, in any case.
 
We find these articles especially meaningful, even momentous:
 
At the same time as WV's then-Congressman Jennings Randolph was flying over the hills in a light aircraft, powered by coal liquids brewed up for him in WVU's basement, heavy freight trains were chugging along the tracks under liquid coal power. 
 
TIME's two articles are revelatory enough, but we will append some comment following the excerpts:
 

"OIL: Synthetic

Monday, May. 23, 1949

Out of St. Louis one day last week glided a diesel-powered Burlington train with a cargo of bigwigs from the coal, oil and auto industries and the Department of the Interior. The big diesel was burning oil made from coal—the first time in U.S. railroading that a train has ever run on synthetic fuel.

The train swung 188 miles up the Mississippi to the sleepy, picturesque town of Louisiana, Mo. There the passengers witnessed the dedication of two plants, developed by the Bureau of Mines at a cost of $15 million, to convert coal into oil. This was the biggest step the U.S. had yet taken to create a synthetic oil industry against the possibility of war or of exhaustion of petroleum reserves.

The plants which made the oil that drove the dedication train will turn out about 400 gallons a day—at least ten times as much as has been produced in any of the 15-odd smaller pilot plants so far built by Government and industry. But it was still far short of the 10,000-gallon daily production of a full-sized commercial plant on the scale of those that powered Germany's Luftwaffe during World War II.

 

RESEARCH: Chemicals from Coal

Monday, May. 12, 1952 

Deep in the coal country, at Institute, W. Va., 30 newsmen gathered last week to see something new in the way of a chemical plant. From a distance, the $11-million factory looked like many another—a mass of storage tanks, pipes, warehouses, and above it all a thin wisp of smoke. But close up, it was like nothing else in the world. Amid the maze of gurgling pipes and steaming valves, scarcely a worker could be seen. Staffed by only 50 men—mostly chemical engineers—the plant runs continuously, 24 hours per day, with scarcely any need of human attention. 

It is different in another way. Built and operated by the huge Union Carbide & Carbon Corp., it is the only commercial plant in the world that uses coal as a direct raw material for producing chemicals. By means of hydrogenation, a method of pulverizing coal and combining it with hydrogen under extreme pressure, it produces cheap hydrocarbons.

With the new plant, Union Carbide opens the door to an infinite variety of new products. From a new abundance of such coal-hydrogenation chemicals as toluene, xylene, napthalene and phenol, predicted Union Carbide's President Morse Dial, will come an endless stream of new medicines and drugs, long-wearing and fireproof fabrics, new paints and detergents, better weed-killers and insecticides.

Saving Time. Hydrogenation of coal is not a Union Carbide invention; the Germans used a similar method to produce gasoline during World War II, and the U.S. Government is also using it at a synthetic liquid-fuel plant at Louisiana, Mo. (TIME, May 23, 1949). But Union Carbide is the first to build such a plant as a source of chemicals. After long research, it has succeeded in cutting the hydrogenation process from an hour to a few minutes, reducing the amount of high-cost hydrogen needed and boosting production of such chemicals as phenol (a base for plastics) and aniline (a base for dyestuffs) as much as 500 times the output by previous methods based on coke.

More Expansion. Until now, these and other "aromatic" chemicals (also used in perfumes, synthetic rubber, explosives and drugs) have been based on raw materials drawn from byproducts of the steel industry's coke ovens. Yet demand for them is growing at an average rate of 30% a year, while the supply has been growing by less than 5%. With the information gained from the new pilot plant, Union Carbide hopes soon to build a full-scale hydrogenation plant which will help solve this raw-materials problem for good."

So, out of Institute, WV, we learn that a "full-scale" coal "hydrogenation plant" could "solve" a major chemical manufacturer's "raw-materials problem for good". And, out of St. Louis, MO, we learn that diesel fuel made from coal can power a full-size locomotive. Keep in mind, as well, that coal can provide fuel for airplanes, too - Jennings Randolph's small one and "Germany's Luftwaffe during World War II".

Speaking of the Luftwaffe, to range even further, let's not forget army tanks. You will, hopefully, recall our documentation of General Patton's use of captured, German, coal-derived synthetic fuel to power his armored columns across the remains of the Third Reich.

We seem to have known a lot more about making liquid fuels out of coal for our planes, trains, automobiles and army tanks back in the 1940's than we do now. Anyone know, or care to speculate on, why that might be?