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A day or so ago, we documented for you "United States Patent 4,348,486 - Production of Methanol via Catalytic Coal Gasification", which was issued, in September of 1982, to a group of scientists employed by Exxon at their New Jersey Research and Engineering Center.
In, for us, startling confirmation of how much the petroleum industry and our own United States Government actually know about the efficient conversion of Coal into liquid hydrocarbon fuels, we herein submit the very next patent issued, in numerical sequence, with the very same title, by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
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The Exxon Coal conversion technology we report herein is complicated, and the full exposition of it, as available via the above link, is extended.
But, it might well be worth the effort needed to read, and to attempt to understand the process.
In sum, as we comprehend it, Coal is catalytically reacted with Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen to generate hydrocarbon liquids, Methane and a still-carbonaceous residue, i.e., "Char".
The liquids are recovered and sent on for refining into product.
The Char is reacted with Steam to produce even more Methane.
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We have previously documented the achievements of Nobel Laureate George Olah, and colleagues, at the University of Southern California, in the field of Carbon conversion technology, especially with regards to the productive recycling of Carbon Dioxide.
Since we have been lately documenting Coal conversion technologies, as in our report this day concerning "US Patent 4,292,048 - Integrated Catalytic Coal ... Steam Gasification Process; 1981; Exxon Research and Engineering", wherein both liquid hydrocarbons and Methane can be co-produced from Coal, but with some co-production of Carbon Dioxide, we wanted to confirm yet again, as in our earlier reports of "US Patent 3,959, 094 - Synthesis of Methanol from Carbon Dioxide" and "US Patent 4,609,441 - Electrochemical Reduction of Aqueous Carbon Dioxide to Methanol" that Carbon Dioxide can be made to react with Methane and/or Water, and thus to form, either directly, via processes of water solution electrolysis, or indirectly, via generation of a synthesis gas suitable for catalytic condensation into a variety of liquid fuels, Methanol.
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Note that two links are enclosed in this dispatch, one above and another following, with two accompanying excerpts.
We have, in the course of our reportage, beaten ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r), Methanol-to-Gasoline, technology nearly to death, via our many references to it's potential importance in, and relevance to, Coal conversion and Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies.
Herein, to further confirm that the valuable liquid fuel, and Gasoline and plastics raw material, Methanol, can, indeed, be efficiently synthesized from Coal, we submit Exxon's very own, US Government-verified, Disclosure of that fact; and, as additional documentation attesting to Methanol's utility, we also enclose, following, further report of Mobil's technology, as disclosed in United States Patent 4,035,430, for the conversion of Methanol into Gasoline..
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We have submitted extensive documentation of the Coal conversion expertise developed, over the course of decades, and now owned, by the companies that became ExxonMobil.
Needless to say, not one of their Coal gasification and liquefaction technologies, as far as we have been able to determine, has been reduced to commercial practice in the United States, where such practice would benefit the people of the nation that ExxonMobil calls home.
That is especially troubling to us, as we think it should be troubling to everyone, since we, the taxpaying citizens of the United States, helped pay for the development of at least some of ExxonMobil's Coal liquefaction technology.
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