WV Coal Member Meeting 2024 1240x200 1 1

Brazil to Convert Coal Mine Waste to Diesel Fuel - in Africa

allAfrica.com: Mozambique: Vale Plans to Produce Diesel From Coal

 

We were unable to find any links to our earlier reports of it on the WV Coal Association web site, but, we long ago called your attention to the planned Coal mine waste-to-liquid fuel project in Gilberton, PA.

 

As we explained in those earlier reports, Coal mine waste accumulations, especially older ones, and depending upon the type of Coal mined and the markets for which that Coal was intended, sometimes contain quite appreciable quantities of carbonaceous material; and, the quantities of residual carbon can be large enough to make the commercial recovery of that carbon at least conceivable.

Illinois Uses WVU CoalTL Solvent to Desulfurize Coal

United States Patent: 4888029

 

We've many times made reference to WVU's "West Virginia Process" for the direct liquefaction of Coal, wherein the hydrogenated form of the primary Coal oil, Naphthalene, commonly referred to as "Tetralin", is utilized as the primary agent of Coal hydrogenation and liquefaction.

 

However, since inter net-accessible reports directly concerning WVU's technology are somewhat scanty, so have been our dissertations to you concerning it, specifically. But, one such report is accessible as:

Pennsylvania Sunshine Converts CO2 to Methanol

United States Patent: 5720858

Relative to our headline on this dispatch, as we will see, once Pennsylvania uses Solar energy to convert the Carbon Dioxide to Methanol, Mobil Oil knows how to convert that Methanol to Gasoline.

And, there is even more to it.

First, we remind you of: Penn State Solar CO2 + H2O = Methane | Research & Development | News; in which we're told of the: "High-Rate Solar Photocatalytic Conversion of CO2 and Water Vapor to Hydrocarbon Fuels; 2009; The Pennsylvania State University"; and, the outline of a method for the "solar conversion of carbon dioxide and water vapor to methane".

 

Coal, Methane and Sulfur to Liquid Hydrocarbons and Hydrogen

United States Patent: 4543434

 

The Coal and Methane conversion process described herein by Mobil Oil, around which we center our discussion, deserves a far better exposition than the US Patent itself, even with it's full Disclosure, provides.

 

In brief sum, and as opined for us by one of our fully-functioning consultants, Mobil is replacing Oxygen, in "partial oxidation" reactions, with Sulfur, Oxygen's close relative in the Periodic Table of Elements, and, thus, somewhat similar to Oxygen in the way it chemically interacts with other substances.

Chicago Hydrogen from H2O

United States Patent: 4793910

 

As in:

 

NASA Hydrogen from Water and Sunlight | Research & Development, concerning: "USP 4,045,315 - Solar Photolysis of Water; 1977; NASA; Abstract: Hydrogen is produced by the solar photolysis of water";

 

we see the need to occasionally document that, even though free, elemental Hydrogen might be needed by some of the Coal liquefaction and Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies we report, such as: