United States Patent: 4211669

We've many times documented the fact that Coal can be gasified, reacted, with Steam; and, be made thereby to form a "synthesis gas", or "syngas", that contains, predominantly, Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide, in variable amounts and ratios; and, which ratios can be controlled to an appreciable extent, so that the resultant synthesis gas is suitable for catalytic, chemical condensation into specific types and ranges of both liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons.

One example of such technology that was developed early on, by a company that later became a part of Exxon, and then of ExxonMobil, can be seen in our report of:

China’s Coal to Liquids Program Not Allowed in the United States

We have several times reported on what should have been a headline scandal for Coal Country newspapers:

"Section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA)" is an insidious piece of legislation that was slipped quietly into the books as a shift in the political makeup of our elected government began to loom as an almost inevitability.

Hydrogenation of naphthalene

We often refer, in the course of our reportage concerning Coal conversion technology, to our sentimental favorite "West Virginia Process", a technique for the direct liquefaction of Coal developed by WVU, which employs the Hydrogen-donor solvent most commonly identified by it's shorthand name: "Tetralin".

One of our more recent reports concerning WVU's work with Tetralin is accessible via

WVU Hydrogenates Coal Tar | Research & Development; which includes details of the thesis:

"Hydrogenation of Naphthalene; Abhijit Bhagavatula; College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University; 2009; Abstract: The hydrogenation of naphthalene ... (to form) the hydrogenated product, tetralin (for use in)  the conversion of coal to refinable crude hydrocarbons, from which liquid fuels such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene, etc., can be produced."

http://www.nt.ntnu.no/users/skoge/prost/proceedings/aiche-2008/data/papers/P138376.pdf

It seems so odd to us that specious public debates about the environmental acceptability of Coal, as in:

Radicals: Obama Too Easy on Coal - News, Sports, Jobs - The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register; could continue, and be afforded broad dissemination, without someone, somewhere, stepping onto the stage and explaining that a fuller, more complete use of our domestic Coal, and of the by-products of our Coal use, could spare us, could have spared us, some absolutely devastating environmental catastrophes, such as, obviously: Gulf oil spill: real disaster might be lurking beneath the surface - CSMonitor.com; wherein is explained the fact that we have yet to realize the full effect of British Petroleum's oil rig disaster on what should be seen and treated as an environmental treasure, a precious and unique sub-tropic sea.