Texaco 1951 Coal + CO2 + H2O + O2 = Syngas

Production of carbon monoxide and other gases from carbonaceous materials

As we've documented in many previous reports, the former, so ubiquitous that it was almost iconic, Texaco Corporation, which finally disappeared into the maw of the Chevron conglomerate over the course of the last decade, had worked, since the 1940's, on the development of an extensive portfolio of Carbon conversion technologies focused on the transmutation of just about anything that contained Carbon into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.

The primary focus of their Carbon conversion efforts centered on an initial transformation of the Carbon source into synthesis gas, or "syngas", a blend of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen that could then, through catalytic technology developed most famously by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, as in:

Iowa Mines Metals from Coal Ash for the USDOE

Energy Citations Database (ECD) - - Document #5878451

In coming days we'll be diverging a bit from the core thesis of our reportage, i.e., that both Coal and Carbon Dioxide, along with Carbon-recycling and sustainable botanical materials, can be cleanly and efficiently converted into any liquid or gaseous hydrocarbon fuel, or other hydrocarbon product, that we currently rely on increasingly scarce, increasingly hazardous and increasingly expensive natural petroleum for the supply of.

There are other topics related to the profound and extraordinary value of Coal which demand attention.

Exxon Converts Coal Conversion Residues to Cement

United States Patent: 4260421

The technologies which exist for converting our abundant Coal into more versatile liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons have been around so long, unbeknownst to the majority of those of us resident in US Coal Country, that a great deal of effort has been applied by practitioners of Coal conversion art to the productive disposal and utilization of wastes that might be generated by such processes.

We've documented, and will further document, the use of Coal ash, as might be co-produced by the use of Coal for generating electricity, as an additive, or even a nearly-complete replacement, for the mineral constituents of conventional cement compositions and concrete, as, for just one instance, in:

USDOE, Auburn and Air Products Improve Coal Hydrogenation

United States Patent: 4374016

As we've previously reported, both Auburn University, in Alabama, a member, with West Virginia University, of the Consortium for Fossil Fuel Science, and the Air Products and Chemicals Company, in Pennsylvania, have worked under various contracts with our United States Department of Energy in the development of Coal liquefaction technologies targeted on the conversion of Coal into petroleum substitute products.

Herein, we learn that they have actually collaborated, for the USDOE, on the development of such technologies, and together achieved significant improvements in the ways in which Coal, and Hydrogen donor solvents based on Coal tars, can be processed and reacted in order to improve the rates and productivity of processes that convert Coal into liquid hydrocarbons.

Mobil Oil Converts CoalTL Residues to Hydrocarbon Syngas

United States Patent: 4583993

We submit herein exposition of even more technology, developed by the petroleum industry, for converting solid Carbon into the raw materials from which liquid hydrocarbon fuels can be synthesized.

Of most interest to us in this example, though, are the sources of that Carbon, which, in this case, are specified to include the still-carbonaceous residues resulting from various types of Coal processing intended to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels, or, at least, a crude liquid Coal product that is compatible with conventional petroleum refinery raw material streams.