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Via the link and the attached file, you can access a US Patent from early in the last century explaining technology for the conversion of Methane and, by explicit extension, Coal, into liquid hydrocarbon fuel.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 1,922,918 - Production of Liquid, in Particular Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Date: August 15, 1933
Inventors: Fritz Winkler, Hans Haeuber and Paul Feiler
Assignee: I. G. Farbenindustrie
Description (highly abbreviated):
The present invention relates to improvements in the production of liquid, in particular aromatic hydrocarbons.
We have found that liquid ... aromatic hydrocarbons ... are obtained in a particularly advantageous manner by the thermal treatment ... of methane or gaseous hydrocarbons comprising more than 80% of methane.
The said methane or gas rich in methane may be from any source, as for example, from the reduction of oxides of carbon with hydrogen or obtained by partial liquefaction and fractionalization of coke oven gas or coal gas.
The favorable effect ... (is) ... that no carbon is deposited on the catalyst.
The process is usually carried out at atmospheric pressure.
The resulting hydrocarbons may be employed as motor fuels."
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As in "the reduction of oxides of carbon", i.e. the Sabatier-type, or related, recycling of Carbon Dioxide, and the "fractionalization of coke oven gas or coal gas"; we can obtain Methane from either Carbon Dioxide or Coal, and then convert that Methane into "hydrocarbons" which "may be employed as motor fuels".
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Patent US2963348
Linked above and attached, you will find US Patent Number 2,963, 348; for a "Hydrocarbon Conversion Process", that was issued and assigned to "Texaco Development Corporation" on December 6, 1960.
Some informative excerpts:
"This invention relates to a method and apparatus for the conversion of hydrocarbons ... it is directed to the conversion of sulfur-containing carbonaceous fuels to high Btu gas and elemental sulfur to generate a synthesis gas ... .
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We've been reporting lately the many virtues of Methane, and wanted to document, yet again, that, in addition to being able to, through Sabatier processes, synthesize Methane from Carbon Dioxide, we can also produce it through technologies of Coal gasification.
Some excerpts from the link, with comment appended:
"Title: Present Status of the Synthane Coal-to-Gas Process
Authors: Forney, A.J., Haynes, W.P., Corey, R.C.
Affiliation: US Bureau of Mines
Source: Fall Meeting; Society of Petroleum Engineers; October, 1971; New Orleans, LA
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U.S. Bureau of Mines Fischer-Tropsch Pilot-Plant Studies of Oil-Circulation Processes
In 1951, a good year, US Bureau of Mines employees reported important advances in the technology for converting Coal into liquid fuels.
Instead of speaking out about it, as they should have, from the steps of a Capital building, in Washington, DC, or Charleston, WV, however, they traveled all the way to an obscure conference in a, as far as the Heartland of US Coal Country would be concerned, very obscure place to deliver the news that US tax dollars had helped to improve the process of making liquid fuels from Coal.
The excerpts:
"Title: U.S. Bureau of Mines Fischer-Tropsch Pilot-Plant Studies of Oil-Circulation Processes
Authors: H.E. Benson, J.H. Crowell, et. al.
Source: 3rd World Petroleum Congress, May 28 - June 6, 1951 , The Hague, the Netherlands
Abstract: Fischer-'I'ropsch process development is summarized, and the essential features of the German fixed-bed system, the hot-gas recycle and oil-circulation processes, and the oil-slurry and fluidized-bed system are briefly described. Most Bureau of Mines pilot-plant experimentation has been directed toward development of the oil-circulation process because a simple converter design could be used and precise operating control attained in such a system. Several moderately successful experiments were made that employed a cooling oil circulating through a fixed catalyst bed. However, shut-downs were necessitated after three or four months of synthesis because the catalyst particles became cemented together and an excessive pressure drop developed across the catalyst bed. This problem of catalyst cementing was circumvented by employing a moving bed of catalyst in which lifting action of the circulating oil was used to expand the catalyst bed and keep the particles in motion. Details of induction and synthesis operations, operating data, analyses of gas and liquid streams, tables of calculated yields, and a typical product distribution are given for various experiments. Calculated yields of gasoline and Diesel products resulting from thermal and catalytic cracking of heavy distillate and wax are given, as well as characterization of the gasoline and Diesel oil. Bureau of Mines, Bruceton, Pennsylvania; Research and Development Branch, Office of Synthetic Liquid Fuels."
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Our ever-diplomatic and discrete US Guv employees did manage to avoid offensive use of the four-letter word "Coal", in this presentation to a "Petroleum Congress", although the phrase "Fischer-Tropsch" should have been a dead giveaway. And, we doubt that our domestic press was much interested in, what was then, an obscure oil industry conference held in the still-rebuilding, war-torn home of the Dutch.
Make no mistake, though, they were, in 1951, liquefying Coal using advances on the "essential features of the German fixed-bed system".
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Pursuant to one of our earlier submissions, now published as "NASA Recycles CO2 to Methane at Room Temperature" in the West Virginia Coal Association's R&D Blog, we wanted to follow up with report of additional research confirming some of NASA's information.
Enclosed via the link, we submit:
"Title: Chemical conversion of carbon dioxide by catalytic hydrogenation and room temperature photoelectrocatalysis
Author: S. Ichikawa
Affiliation: Hitachi Ltd, Hitachi res. lab., JAPAN
Source: International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Removal; October, 1994; Kyoto , JAPAN
Abstract: Conversion of effluent carbon dioxide to fuels is one of the possible methods to decrease its emission into the atmosphere. The concept of chemical recycling is expected to become a universal practice in the long run not only for its relevancy to CO2 but also as a means to solve energy problems by revitalizing flue gases in general through catalytic processes. This report gives new results on the developments of a rhodium-manganese catalyst for high-conversion of CO2 to methane by contact catalytic process and a photoelectrocatalytic process to convert CO2 to useful chemicals."
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Again, we find herein that we can recycle CO2 into Methane in a "room temperature", i.e., low energy input, low energy cost, process.
And, yet again, once we have the Methane, we can convert it directly into liquid fuels; or, we can use it, via Tri-reforming processes, as explained by Penn State University, to recycle more Carbon Dioxide into liquid fuels; or, we can use it to enhance and improve the productivity of indirect Coal liquefaction processes to make liquid fuels.
All as we have documented and will continue to document.
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