United States Patent Application: 0130115149

As we've documented previously a number of times, as for just one example in our report of:

West Virginia Coal Association | USDOE Says Coal Ash Could End Aluminum Ore Imports | Research & Development; which included, among others, separate reference to:

"Resource Recovery from Coal Residues; 73rd Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; 1980; G. Jones, et. al.; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; USDOE; Abstract: Several processes are being developed to recover metals from coal combustion and conversion residues. Methods to obtain substantial amounts of aluminum, iron, and titanium from these wastes are presented. The primary purpose of our investigation is to find a process that is economically sound or one that at least will partially defray the costs of waste processing. A cursory look at the content of fly ash enables one to see the merits of recovery of these huge quantities of valuable resources. The major constituents of fly ash of most interest are aluminum (14.8%), iron (7.5%), and titanium (1.0%). If these major elements could be recovered from the fly ash produced in the United States (60 million tons/year), bauxite would not have to be imported, iron ore production could be increased, and titanium production could be doubled"; and:

United States Patent Application: 0130126359

We had something different in the works today when the item which is our subject herein popped into virtual reality.

And, that's likely an inaccurate use of the term, since the facts represented by our subject aren't virtual, they're concrete.

United States Patent: 4561964

As can now be accessed on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site, via:

West Virginia Coal Association | USDOE Efficient Hydrogen for Liquid Fuel Synthesis | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent Application 20120149789 - Apparatus and Methods for the Electrolysis of Water; 2012; Assignee: UT-Battelle, LLC; Oak Ridge, TN; This invention was made with government support under Contract Number DE-AC05-000R22725 between the United States Department of Energy and UT-Battelle, LLC. The U.S. government has certain rights in this invention. An apparatus for the electrolytic splitting of water into hydrogen and/or oxygen (and, a) method for producing hydrogen and oxygen gases from the electrolytic splitting of water ... wherein said electrolyzer is powered by a renewable energy source (and) wherein said renewable energy source comprises solar energy (or) wherein said renewable energy source comprises wind energy (and) wherein said electrolysis method is coupled to a process that utilizes hydrogen or oxygen gas.  The method ... wherein said process is a Fischer-Tropsch process for the synthesis of liquid hydrocarbons (or) wherein said process is a hydrogenation process";

Right up front, we have to report, that, in the course of our research for this dispatch, we stumbled across a public statement that is, of course, so obvious that we all have just pretty much come to accept, without comment or protest, the fact of it. But, on further reflection, as we worked on our composition herein, the true import of it - - in light especially of our own reportage on Coal liquefaction technology as made public by the West Virginia Coal Association, and the ongoing Coal Country public press silence, a veritable blackout, on the issue - - began to loom much larger and compelled us to comment.