More NASA Hydrogen from Water and Sunlight

United States Patent: 4051005

As should, by now, be apparent from all of our posts, the conversion of both Coal and Carbon Dioxide into hydrocarbons, into substances which can serve as Synthetic Petroleum and Substitute Natural Gas, as the products of such conversions are frequently labeled, requires that Hydrogen be somehow added to and combined with the Carbon that Coal and CO2 bring to the party.

That can in some cases be accomplished indirectly, as when Steam, H2O, is utilized in the gasification of Coal, as, for just one example, rather plainly stated in:

Texaco 1950 Coal + Steam = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development; which concerns: "United States Patent 2,516,974 - Gasifying Carbonaceous Material; 1950; Assignee: Texaco Development Corporation; The present invention relates to gasification of solid fuels and is more particularly concerned with the conversion of carbonaceous materials into a gaseous product ... composed primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen ... (which are) ... produced by the reaction of water vapor with carbon".

 

Texaco 1948 CO2 + CH4 = Hydrocarbon Syngas

Process for the production of synthesis gas

In a recent dispatch, now accessible via:

Texaco Photosynthetic CO2 Recycling | Research & Development; we made report of the: "United States Patent 4,545,872 - Method for Reducing Carbon Dioxide to Provide a Product; 1985; Assignee: Texaco, Incorporated, NY; Abstract: A process and apparatus for reducing carbon dioxide to at least one useful product (and, which product is) methanol (and/or) methane";

 

West Virginia and Pittsburgh Liquefy Coal

United States Patent: 4018663

Actually, the USDOE, upon its creation, only inherited the invention we report herein from the US Department of Interior, along with the US Bureau of Mines and it's Morgantown, WV, Coal Research Center.

Nonetheless, it was a West Virginia scientist who, better than 30 years ago, revealed that we could, as in our excerpts following, "produce larger yields of gasoline and diesel oil" through his "improved coal liquefaction process".

 

West Virginia Hydrocracks Coal Liquids with Brute Force

Hydrogenolysis of coal hydrogenation products

In several previous reports, dating back now a few years, we've documented the late-1950's, early-1960's operation, by the former Union Carbide Corporation, since assimilated into Dow Chemical, of a Coal liquefaction and hydrogenation factory in South Charleston, West Virginia.

And, in fact, an interesting compilation concerning Union Carbide's Coal conversion operations in Charleston can be found in the West Virginia Division of Culture and History's own West Virginia State Archives, via:

 

More WV DuPont 1955 Coal and Steam to Hydrocarbon Syngas

Preparation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen by partial oxidation of carbonaceous solids

We recently documented what appears to have been, more than half a century ago, the intensive development of Coal conversion and hydrogenation technologies and processes that took place in the very heart of US Coal Country, in the state capitol of West Virginia itself.