USDOE Demonstrates Economic Feasibility of Coal Liquefaction

http://www.osti.gov/scitech/servlets/purl/1001343

We note, by way of introduction, that our US Government has changed the way it archives it's electronic files of information pertaining to energy. Consequently, some of the links we have provided in past reports to, especially, USDOE records of National Laboratory and USDOE-contracted research might not endure and remain viable, functional. That fact, combined with the sheer volume of information represented by our prior reports, as preserved on the West Virginia Coal Association web site, in their Research and Development archives, might lead to undesirable repetition.

We regret that potential, but, additionally, recognize that some of the information bears repeating.

 

Saudi Arabia Improves CO2-to-Hydrocarbon Catalysis

United States Patent Application: 0130256123

Trick or Treat!

It's Halloween.

If you reside in US Coal Country, don't be surprised if, when you respond to the doorbell or a knock this evening, you find yourself confronted by a suspiciously older-looking group, with beards that might or might not be fake, dressed in the turbans, kaftans and billowing robes of desert sheiks.

 

China Extracts More Aluminum from Coal Ash

United States Patent: 8568671

As most in the upper Ohio River Valley province of US Coal Country are likely aware, as seen for one out of many examples in:

Ormet will close, put 700 out of work | The Columbus Dispatch; "Ormet Corp. is shutting down and laying off most of its 700 workers, a blow to the economy of southeastern Ohio.The Hannibal-based aluminum smelter announced its decision yesterday afternoon, two days after the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved the company for part of the additional electricity subsidies that the company had called necessary to remain viable. Mike Tanchuk, Ormet’s CEO, said in a statement that the PUCO’s actions were merely a restructuring of existing aid, not the additional help the company desperately needed. He said the plant closing is partly a result of the state’s deregulation of the electricity market, which he blames for the dramatic rise in power bills";

 

USDOE Renewable Energy Extracts Hydrogen from Water

United States Patent: 8444846

As we've more recently documented, in:

West Virginia Coal Association | USDOE Reaffirms CO2 to Gasoline Technical Viability | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent Application 20130281553 - Method of Producing Synthetic Fuels and Organic Chemicals from Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide; Date: October 24, 2013; Assignee: Los Alamos National Security, LLC, NM; Abstract: The present invention is directed to providing a method of producing synthetic fuels and organic chemicals from atmospheric carbon dioxide. Government Interests: This invention was made with government support under Contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25396 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The government has certain rights in the invention. A method for producing a chemical product comprising the steps of: extracting carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere; producing hydrogen gas; combining said carbon dioxide gas and said hydrogen gas to produce a synthesis gas; and converting said synthesis gas to said product. wherein said product is selected from the group consisting of fuel, diesel fuel, jet fuel, gasoline, petrochemicals, plastics, butane, methanol, ethylene, propylene, aromatic compounds, petrochemical derivatives, derivatives thereof, and mixtures thereof"; and:

USDOE Reaffirms CO2 to Gasoline Technical Viability

United States Patent Application: 0130281553

Our own United States Government, as embodied in the US Department of Energy, continues to insist, as do we here, that Carbon Dioxide, as arises in only a small way, relative to some all-natural and un-taxable sources of emission, such as the Earth's inexorable processes of planetary volcanism, from our economically essential use of Coal in the generation of truly abundant and truly affordable electric power, is a valuable, maybe even a precious, raw material resource.