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As in many of the technologies for the conversion of Coal into liquid hydrocarbons which have been developed, published and patented by Big Oil, use of the dirty, four-letter word, Coal, is avoided herein to the point of absurdity.
Exxon, in this 33 years-old patent, only goes so far as to show us her garter belt in the full Description, by saying:
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We have made many reports on the existence and development of bi-reforming and tri-reforming technologies, wherein the Carbon Dioxide by-product of our Coal-use industries can be reacted with Methane to synthesize higher hydrocarbons, including liquid fuels.
Of special interest to us has been the work and reportage of Penn State University; one of whose scientists, Craig Grimes, based on his knowledge of the potential for such technology, stated publicly, with regards to proposals for the mandated geologic sequestration of Carbon Dioxide, that: "Burying CO2 is ridiculous".
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The end product of this German-invented and US-patented technology is Gasoline.
An intermediary product which could and should be harvested and employed, for additional uses, such as the starting raw material for a variety of plastics and other products of commercial value, is Methanol.
The starting raw material is Coal.
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Yesterday, we submitted a representative sample of seven Coal-to-Liquid conversion technologies invented, developed and patented by the old Mobil Oil Corporation, now a component of ExxonMobil.
We do understand that those US Patents' titles, and some of those patents' abstracts and descriptions, don't, in all cases, specify Coal or Coal Conversion, even though that is, we assure you, what those detailed, well-developed hydrocarbon processing technologies are all about.
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The enclosed is more of an op-ed piece than an informative explanation of how Coal can be economically converted into liquid fuels.
But, the sources - MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, and the National Research Council - are of such unimpeachable character that we believe them when they say that we can make premium liquid fuel from Coal that would be "competitive with 25-30 $/bbl imported crude oil".
However astute these researchers must be, however, they apparently did not, as they wrote this, in 1995, foresee or anticipate the dramatic and sudden magnitude of the effect domestic US politics and international affairs would have on the price of imported oil.
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