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The enclosed US Patent isn't all that informative or revelatory, as regards the very real technologies that exist to transform our abundant Coal into the liquid transportation fuels we need.
We submit it only as another item of evidence demonstrating that the knowledge exists, and has existed in the community of United States petroleum companies for many decades, which would enable us to convert our abundant domestic Coal, cleanly and efficiently, into those needed liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
The technology disclosed herein, as with some others we've reported, deals not with manufacturing hydrocarbon liquids from Coal, it being a given that we can do so; but, with the further cleaning and refining such Coal liquids, once they are manufactured, so that they can better serve as direct replacements for oil refinery feed stock; and, by extension, as direct replacements for the liquid fuels required by our current transportation fleet and transportation fuel supply infrastructure.
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http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-08062003-145234/unrestricted/chpt5-2.pdf
We believe the author of the enclosed thesis to be one Doowhan Lee, who, after earning a PhD at Virginia Tech, with the enclosed dissertation, according to online sources, went on to become a Professor of Chemical Engineering, at the University of California, Berkeley; and, a Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California, before returning to Korea and joining the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.
In any case, while at Virginia Tech, this accomplished scientist helped to advance our knowledge of how two greenhouse gases, Carbon Dioxide and Methane, could be reacted to together to synthesize valuable hydrocarbons.
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We some time ago reported that a United States Patent had been issued, in 1933, to German inventors for demonstrating that Methane could be converted into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
Herein, we report that, six years later, in 1939, an American petroleum company went Germany one better by demonstrating that, not only could Methane be converted into liquid hydrocarbon fuels, but, the conversion could be accomplished by combining the Methane with Carbon Dioxide.
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http://www.marssociety.org/portal/TMS_Library/Frankie_2001
We have several times reported on NASA's current use of the Sabatier reaction aboard the International Space Station, to recycle the astronauts' exhaled Carbon Dioxide; and, of their planned use for it on the planet Mars, to manufacture Methane, for further processing into rocket fuel, from the primarily Carbon Dioxide Martian atmosphere.
Herein, they are seen to be taking that technology one step further, by adding a "dry reforming" process, very similar to, or nearly the same as, the "Tri-reforming" process described by Penn State University, wherein the Methane, produced via the Sabatier reaction from Carbon Dioxide, is reacted with even more Carbon Dioxide to synthesize higher hydrocarbons with even greater fuel potential.
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United States Patent: 4340503
As a foreword to this United States Patent for condensing Coal-derived syngas into liquid hydrocarbons, we submit an excerpt taken from the Patent's formal Background explanation:
"Since the combined action in 1973 by OPEC which has resulted in a 500% increase in the cost of crude oil, the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction has become more important. In countries with cheap coal, such as South Africa, Australia and even portions of the United States, the synthesis of fuel from coal can be economical today and will become more economical as OPEC continues to raise crude oil prices."
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