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In further documentation of our reports that scrap automobile tires improve the yield of liquid fuels from coal conversion processes, as has been discovered, variously, by researchers in Japan and the UK, and at WVU, we submit herein three related reports of similar findings from scientists at the University of Utah.
Note, as well, brief mention if other waste plastics, in confirmation of yet other reports we've made, as even another class of material that can be processed along with coal to improve the efficiencies and yields from liquid fuel conversion processes.
Links and excerpts:
Coprocessing waste rubber tire material and coal
Edward C. Orr, John A. Burghard, Wisanu Tuntawiroon, Larry L. Anderson and Edward M. Eyring
Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical and Fuels Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Abstract
Blind Canyon DECS-6 coal (BC6) was reacted with ground waste rubber tire (WRT) particles and pyrolyzed tire oil (PTO) recovered by vacuum pyrolysis of WRT in an investigation of the feasibility of coprocessing coal and waste tire materials to make transportation fuels. ... A synergistic effect (beneficial effect of reacting coal and WRT together that is not observed when coal and WRT are reacted individually) was observed ... The synergism observed for PTO/BC6 reactions may be related to the presence of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHC) in the PTO. It was found that ... the BC6/PTO mixture yields more product liquids as well as diminished carbon black contamination of liquid products.
Vacuum pyrolyzed tire oil as a coal solvent
E. C. Orr
Abstract
Tyre oil obtained by vacuum pyrolysis of waste rubber tyres is better than shredded tyres for coprocessing with coal. The PTO appears to be a good dissolution solvent for the coal and an effective hydrogen donor. The solvent readily enters the coal matrix thus aiding catalyst dispersion.
ScienceDirect - Fuel Processing Technology : Waste oils used as solvents for different ranks of coal
Waste oils used as solvents for different ranks of coal
Edward C. Orr, Yanlong Shi, Lian Shao, Jing Liang, Weibing Ding, Larry L. Anderson and Edward M. Eyring
Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical and Fuels Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Abstract
The effect of using different waste oils as solvent media for the liquefaction of lignite, subbituminous, and bituminous coals was investigated using tubing reactors. The waste oils utilized were waste automobile crankcase oil, oil produced by vacuum pyrolysis of waste rubber tires, and oil produced from vacuum pyrolysis of waste plastics. Coprocessing the vacuum pyrolyzed tire oil with Illinois no. 6 coal gave the best overall conversion.
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Although scrapped auto tires and waste plastics might make only a relatively small contribution to the production of liquid fuels, relative to coal and botanical cellulose, and relative to our total US demand for liquid fuels, they do make a synergistic contribution, and it is a contribution that provides the additional benefits of cleaning up our physical environment and eliminating the increasing costs of waste disposal.
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We some time ago documented British and US research, including work performed by WVU's Department of Chemical Engineering, which demonstrated that scrapped auto tires, as were once accumulated in some abundance in large piles scattered about the West Virginia hills, could either be liquefied themselves, using coal conversion technologies, into liquid fuel raw materials; or, be liquefied along with coal as an additional raw material.
Herein, Japanese researchers, in a fairly recent report, confirm some of those results, revealing that the addition of waste tires not only enhances the process of coal liquefaction, as earlier reported, but also enables the conversion, into liquid hydrocarbons, of previously "insoluble" coal-to-liquid conversion residue.
Additional comment follows the excerpt:
"Additive Effect of Waste Tire on the Hydrogenolysis Reaction of Coal Liquefaction Residue
Motoyuki Sugano, Daigorou Onda, and Kiyoshi Mashimo
[Unable to display image]Department of Materials and Applied Chemistry, College of Science and Technology, Nihon University, 1-8 Kanda surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8308, Japan
Energy Fuels, 2006, 20 (6), pp 2713–2716
Copyright © 2006 American Chemical Society
Abstract
A numerous amount of waste tire is landfilled or dumped all over the world, which causes environmental problems, such as destruction of natural places and the risk of fires. On the other hand, the coal liquefaction residue (CLR) is produced in 30% yield through the process supporting unit (PSU) of the NEDOL coal liquefaction process. Therefore, the investigation on an effective method for utilization of waste tire and CLR is required. In this study, the simultaneous hydrogenolysis of CLR and pulverized waste tire was carried out by using tetralin. The yields in the simultaneous hydrogenolysis were compared with algebraic sum of the yields of the individual hydrogenolyses of waste tire alone and coal alone. In the simultaneous hydrogenolysis, the synergistic effects to upgrading, such as an increase in the yield of the oil constituent and a decrease in the yield of the asphaltene constituent, occurred because of the stabilization of asphaltenic radicals from CLR with aliphatic radicals from tire. The decrease in asphaltene yield in the simultaneous hydrogenolysis was pronounced with the increase in the tire:CLR ratio because the solvent effects of liquefied tire, such as stabilization of radicals, hydrogen shuttling, and heat transfer, were enhanced. Accordingly, it is estimated that the simultaneous hydrogenolysis of CLR and waste tire is an effective method for processing both materials."
We note that similar synergistic effects in the production of liquid fuel have been observed, by other researchers we've previously cited, when other hydro-carbonaceous wastes, such as sawdust, scrap plastic and sewer sludge, were added to coal in primarily coal-to-liquid conversion processes.
As indicated by the WVU patent we recently cited for you, even farm animal carcasses and cow pies can be liquefied into fuel, using coal liquefaction technology.
In some of those cases, not only would more liquid fuel be produced, but Carbon Dioxide, through the inclusion of biological materials, would be recycled, as well.
There are tremendous potentials which can be realized through the full implementation of coal-to-liquid conversion technology. It's way past time those potentials were exposed and explained to those who would benefit most from their implementation: The citizens of the United States of America.
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In the course of our long exercise documenting the Truth that abundant US coal can, profitably and cleanly, be converted into the liquid fuels and industrial raw materials we need, we have posted several complete books to you on the subject.
Herein is yet another. And it, too, was published many decades ago; before, we presume, Big Oil was able to draw his iridescent black curtain around the subject, and thus hide the facts from those who most deserve to know them.
First, we have been unable to learn much about the identity of the author, Leonard Fanning; except that he was associated in some way with the American Petroleum Institute, and wrote prolifically about the US oil industry in the middle decades of the last century.
And, keep in mind one key fact: This is not a book written about coal, or coal liquefaction. It is a catalogue, as it were, of the petroleum resources available to the United States.
Without attempting comment on the accuracy of Fanning's reserve estimates, we know we have a lot of coal, following are some excerpts:
"OUR OIL RESOURCES
EDITED BY
LEONARD M. FANNING, Author of The Rise of American Oil
McGRAW-HTLL BOOK COMPANY, INC.; New York London 1945
EDITED BY
LEONARD M. FANNING, Author of The Rise of American Oil
McGRAW-HTLL BOOK COMPANY, INC.; New York London 1945
6. Coal deposits in North America are calculated in the tril-
lions of tons. Estimates show this coal could supply 6,000
billion barrels of gasoline, which at probable postwar consump-
tion would provide enough gasoline for 8,000 years without
infringing on other uses for coal. Even today coal can be mined,
converted to oil and then to gasoline, and sell at a price to the
dealer, excluding tax, no higher than the price of 1918-1922,
excluding tax. The technology of this conversion has naturally
received little attention in the United States. When our able
research talent really begins to work on it, the cost will be greatly
reduced. The prices of 1918-1922 would seem high to our people
today, because our private oil industry has continually reduced
the cost of gasoline."
lions of tons. Estimates show this coal could supply 6,000
billion barrels of gasoline, which at probable postwar consump-
tion would provide enough gasoline for 8,000 years without
infringing on other uses for coal. Even today coal can be mined,
converted to oil and then to gasoline, and sell at a price to the
dealer, excluding tax, no higher than the price of 1918-1922,
excluding tax. The technology of this conversion has naturally
received little attention in the United States. When our able
research talent really begins to work on it, the cost will be greatly
reduced. The prices of 1918-1922 would seem high to our people
today, because our private oil industry has continually reduced
the cost of gasoline."
Though it likely doesn't need emphasis, we'll repeat: "Even today (i.e., in 1945 - JtM) coal can be mined,
converted to oil and then to gasoline, and sell at a price to the
dealer, excluding tax, no higher than the price of 1918-1922,
excluding tax. The technology of this conversion has naturally
received little attention in the United States."
converted to oil and then to gasoline, and sell at a price to the
dealer, excluding tax, no higher than the price of 1918-1922,
excluding tax. The technology of this conversion has naturally
received little attention in the United States."
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In this review of foreign coal-to-liquid conversion technologies, these US Government researchers reveal one of the key reasons, aside from Big Oil avarice and connivance, that we don't now have a domestic industry based on the conversion of abundant US coal into liquid fuels and chemicals.
The excerpt, comment appended:
"Title: Foreign coal liquefaction: survey and assessment.
Author: Pay, T.D., Patel, S.S., Ulrich, W.C., Cochran, H.D., et.al.
Date: May, 1984
Report: ORNL/TM-8288 DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Abstract: The Foreign Coal Liquefaction Technology Survey and Assessment is part of the International Energy Technology Assessment effort. Australia, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom were selected because they have active coal liquefaction programs, are using or developing technologies that could be used in the U.S. and/or are involved with U.S. coal liquefaction programs. Australia has enough coal but does not have an extensive liquefaction technology base. Other countries such as Germany and Japan are proposing joint coal liquefaction projects with Australia. Germany has again become a world leader in the development and marketing of coal liquefaction and gasification technology. Japan has no domestic oil or natural gas resources to speak of and has very little coal. Diversification of its energy supply base is the keystone of Japan's national strategy. New Zealand's short-term plans are to convert much of its natural gas resources into gasoline using the Mobil methanol-to-gasoline process. South Africa, as a result of a major strategic decision made over 30 years ago, has applied pre-war German technology to its coal resources and developed the only commercial-scale indirect coal liquefaction facilities in the world today. The United Kingdom possesses large reserves of coal. The need to covert it to liquid and gaseous fuels is not immediate, however, because the country is self-sufficient in oil and natural gas at the present time. The United States, which has the potential to duplicate the positions of both Germany and South Africa as leaders in the development, application and marketing of coal liquefaction technology has not done so because of a lack of domestic economic incentive (i.e., cheap oil) and the absence of governmental direction and support. 232 references, 45 tables, 38 figures"
Please don't miss the point. Since "cheap oil", as in this 1984 report, is a thing of the past, the only barrier to establishing United States domestic "active coal liquefaction programs" similar to those in "Australia, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom" is "the absence of governmental direction and support".
Our own, US, Government, in this US Department of Energy summation, confesses that it's own failure to provide needed "direction and support" is the main reason we don't now have a domestic coal-to-liquid conversion industry.
The confession was made more than twenty years ago. What have they done in the subsequent two decades to correct their inadequacies? Simply saying they were wrong doesn't make it right; and, we continue to suffer the many ills of oil importation because our own government agencies didn't do, and, as far as we know, still aren't doing, their jobs.
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In 1926, in the same era as Bergius won the Nobel Prize for converting coal into liquid fuel and Sabatier won the Nobel Prize for recycling Carbon Dioxide into even more fuel, the New York Times recognized the importance of converting our vast reserves of domestic coal into the liquid fuels people of genuine vision recognized, even then, that we would need to have, and have from our own, secure United States reserves.
An excerpt follows, but we'll close here with a question that must be asked: Why is it that journalists in New York City recognized, eight decades, almost a century, ago, that our US coal represents a vault of treasure locked away, literally, in our basement, but Coal State journalists, now, don't even seem to be looking for the key?
Just wondering.
Joe the Miner
A brief excerpt:
COAL IS TO GIVE US GASOLINE AND A NEW FUEL; Chemists Promise a Rich Source of Future Energy to be Produced in Factories -- How Bituminous Mines are to be Utilized for the Benefit of Mankind
By VALENTINE KARLYN
November 28, 1926, Sunday
Section: SPECIAL FEATURES AUTOMOBILES SPECIAL FEATURES RADIO, Page XX3, 3273 words
A THOUSAND chemists and fuel engineers saw the future of coal unfolded during the international conference on bituminous coal held in Pittsburgh a few days ago. Scientists from England, Germany and France vied with American technologists in foreshadowing a day when the burning of raw coal in the factory or the home will be regarded as a highly extravagant practice.
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