Nowhere in the extended Disclosure of the ConocoPhillips US Patent we report in this dispatch is the dirty, four-letter word "Coal", even in passing, mentioned.
But, that's okay.
It is, in fact, the Disclosure of an improvement on the processing of Synthesis Gas, "Syngas", a blend of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, to produce, preferentially, Hydrocarbons; no matter what the source of that Syngas might be.
Herein, we learn that, a shade more than seventy years after Europe's Nobel Committee awarded their Prize in Chemistry to Paul Sabatier for first demonstrating the fact, a team of talented scientists at California's prestigious Stanford University confirmed that Carbon Dioxide could indeed be converted into Methane; and, they developed a, perhaps, more efficient, at least more modern, way of going about it.
United States Patent Application: 0090261296
We have many times described and made reference to the Fischer-Tropsch process, wherein a synthesis gas, composed ideally and primarily of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen generated by the gasification of Coal, is catalytically condensed into a mixture of gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons.
Further, we have documented that Steam can be employed as one of the agents of the initial Coal gasification, with some sophistication having been developed in such use of Steam, which helps to maximize the generation of Carbon Monoxide, as opposed to less-desirable Carbon Dioxide; but, which also, more importantly, serves to provide an additional source of Hydrogen for the synthesis gas, which enables the conversion of more of the Coal's original Carbon content into a wider range of more valuable hydrocarbons.
Reforming process for carbon monoxide
More than a year ago, we documented for you that West Virginia scientists in the employ of the fabled chemical company, E.I. Dupont, had, very nearly four decades ago, figured out how to convert some of Coal Country's apparently-offensive Carbon Dioxide into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
That report is accessible via: WV DuPont Patents CO2 + CH4 = Methanol | Research & Development; and, it includes details of: "US Patent 3,763,205 - Methanol Process with Recycle; 1973; Inventor: Ralph Green, Charleston, WV; Assignee: E.I. DuPont; Abstract: Methanol is made by a process that involves feeding natural gas, steam ... and ... carbon dioxide to a single bed type reactor."
By way of introduction to the subject technology of this dispatch, we are first obliged to remind you of a few of our earlier reports, just as representative examples out of others somewhat related in content.
One is: FMC Corporation Recovers Sulfur from Coal Syngas | Research & Development | News; which divulges: "US Patent 4,302,218 - Process for Controlling Sulfur Oxides in Coal Gasification; 1981; Assignee: FMC Corporation; Abstract: In a fluidized coal gasification process ... SO2 ... in the combustor's flue gas is ... converted to H2S"; wherein we're taught that we can produce Hydrogen Sulfide, H2S, as one by-product of an indirect process for converting Coal, via an initial gasification, into more versatile hydrocarbons.