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Our headline might at first seem a little misleading. It is not ExxonMobil specifically we report on in this dispatch, but one of the many companies that ultimately coalesced into that sprawling conglomerate.
Moreover, the offensive four-letter word "Coal" isn't mentioned; not even once.
However, we recently made report of: "United States Patent 2,543,795 - Liquid and Gaseous Fuels from Coal" which was awarded in 1951 to scientists working for the Standard Oil Development Company.
In their exposition of that technology, as we attempted to explain, the inventors revealed, in confirmation of other evidence we had earlier submitted, that some Coal conversion processes could be designed in such a way that little or no external energy needed to be supplied to the system.
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We have, in the course of our dispatches over the past few years, frequently documented and referred to the achievements of South Africa in the conversion of Coal into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
Their petrochemical giant, SASOL, South Africa Synthetic Oil Limited, operates multiple Coal liquefaction facilities, and supplies a large percentage of that nation's liquid fuel needs with them.
Since SASOL is a dominant force in South Africa's economy, and since Coal is one of that nation's most important natural resources, the various institutions of higher learning in South Africa have, to a greater or lesser degree, interacted with SASOL, exchanged personnel with them, and supported them with research and development.
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Again from more than half a century ago, we cite both Standard Oil and our United States Government in support of the fact that whether we need Gasoline or "Natural" Gas, we can make them both from Coal.
And, better, we can make them both as co-products originating from a fully-integrated, self-sufficient Coal gasification and liquefaction industrial process.
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We have previously cited some of these Swiss scientists, relative to the technology they have developed, wherein flue gas Carbon Dioxide can be reclaimed and recycled.
CO2, through a low-energy process, can be transformed into the liquid hydrocarbon fuel, Methanol.
And, a critical read of the brief synopsis provided herein shows that they are, or, more than ten years ago were, working to solve a problem with the technology, which, from our point of view, ain't a problem.
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The technology described herein by Exxon is more than a little complicated. But, a study of it confirms that they are utilizing, and thereby validating several Coal conversion procedures and reactions about which we have earlier reported, and which we have, from other sources, documented to be feasible and practical.
In essence, they are hydrogenating raw Coal with free Hydrogen to synthesize and extract hydrocarbon liquids and gases.
However, they are obtaining that Hydrogen, along with some supplemental Carbon Monoxide, from the Steam reforming of Methane, which itself is synthesized via the Steam gasification of the Char, or carbonaceous residue, left behind by the hydrogenation of the raw Coal.
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