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We have documented the WWII, and more contemporary, work performed by the Axis powers on converting coal into liquid fuels.
Herein is more information on the CTL work that has been performed in Italy. Like much about coal conversion scientific development which has been conducted among the Western powers, however, the Italian effort seems to have winked out, tellingly from our perspective, sometime in the late Eighties or early Nineties.
In any case, they were at work on some, perhaps, innovative techniques that might have involved direct reduction, of water and CO2, chemistry to generate active H and CO ions for coal conversion reactions, in addition to the use of the hydrogen-donor coal solvent, tetralin, which, we believe, according to other published reports, is integral to WVU's "West Virginia Process" for coal liquefaction.
The excerpt:
"New CO/water conversion of coal; Topical report, January 1, 1986--December 31, 1988
Del Bianco, A., Girardi, E.[Eniricerche SpA, Milan (Italy)]
1988 Dec 31
DOE/FE/60925--T2
Ministero dell`Industria, Milan (Italy)
The primary objective of this research was to study the chemistry of coal liquefaction in carbon monoxide-water system in order to develop more efficient routes of coal hydrogenation. Work was accomplished under two Tasks aimed to optimize the yields of coal conversion as a function of the operating variables (Task 1) and to evaluate the quality of the coal-liquids in comparison with similar products from more conventional donor-solvent liquefaction processes (Task 2). Under Task 1, a set of four medium and low rank coals were converted under CO-steam conditions and the effect of changing the operating variables and nature of the catalysts were examined to understand the chemistry of this reaction more fully. These studies confirmed that a water-gas-shift reaction (WGSR) intermediate is the reducing species of the system and that a good matching between the reactions of WGSR-intermediate generation and thermal coal activation is essential to yield high coal conversions. The potential of temperature-staged liquefaction as well as the use of multicomponent catalytic systems were investigated. After establishing the optimum reaction conditions, comparative tests of coal liquefaction with tetralin/H2 were performed (Task 2). Results showed that the CO/water system gives coal conversion yields which are comparable, if not superior, to that obtained with the donor-solvent. 27 refs., 26 figs., 10 tabs"
Now, it would be nice to have access to those 27 references, figures and etc., wouldn't it? Since this citation is found in our own, US, Department of Energy's database, it should be available, in it's entirety, along with it's referenced works, and all the other coal-to-liquid fuel conversion references we've posted, shouldn't it?
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Just as we have thoroughly documented West Virginia University's intimate involvement in China's very extensive coal-to-liquid conversion, for fuels and chemicals, industrial development program, herein, from China, we learn that our own US Department of Energy has, perhaps indirectly, been assisting our foreign competitors with coal conversion technology, as well.
Comment follows the brief excerpt:
"Research on the Environment
I: Liquid Coal As A Fuel
An industrial complex is being built in China in order to perform direct liquefaction of coal, an ancient source of heat and energy.
The new complex being built in the Chinese region of Baotou (not far from Mongolia) uses a technique developed in the United States during the 1990s by Hydrocarbon Technology Inc., in conjunction with the USA Energy Department, involving the direct conversion of coal into hydrocarbon distillates."
So, technology developed by our own USDOE and a US corporation, for converting abundant coal into liquid fuels and chemicals, is being reduced to commercial practice by one of our most aggressive and adversarial foreign competitors.
We know all of that, it seems. What we don't know is why such CoalTL commercialization, with US Government, US educational institution and US corporate assistance, isn't taking place in West Virginia, or Pennsylvania, or anywhere else in this nation where American citizens depend upon coal for their livelihoods; or, where American citizens are embittered and impoverished by sending their wealth and their young soldiers overseas to finance and defend the OPEC powers, whose philosophies and practices are sometimes directly counter to the American ways of life and belief.
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We earlier documented that our WWII British Allies were, during the war, like our German and Japanese foes at the time, converting coal into some of the liquid fuels needed by their military.
British Scientists are continuing to refine and develop their coal-to-liquid processes, just like researchers in the United States. And, they are using, in their work, a coal found in the US which seems to have become a standard for CTL experimentation: "Illinois No. 6". It is a specification we have seen in several other research citations, from other places.
The technically dense Excerpt, with comment following :
"Title: Reductive alkylation of Illinois No. 6 coal in liquid ammonia
Author: Handy, C.I., Stock, L.M.
Date: August 01, 1982
Journal: Fuel; (United Kingdom); Journal Volume: 61:8
Abstract: The reductive alkylation of Illinois No. 6 coal was investigated using alkali metals and alkyl halides in liquid ammonia. Potassium is the most effective reducing agent and butyl iodide is the most effective alkylating agent for the preparation of coal alkylate that is soluble in tetrahydrofuran. The overall yield of soluble product is often improved through the reaction of the tetrahydrofuran-insoluble portion of the initial reaction products with an alkylating agent in the presence of tetrabutylammonium hydroxide. The infrared spectra of these materials suggest that the phase transfer agent catalyses the esterification of residual carboxylic acid functions. The intermolecular interactions between such acid groups and acceptor groups markedly restrict the solubility of the coal alkylate. The gel permeation chromatograms of the soluble reaction products are essentially featureless with only modest maxima at short and long elution volumes. The proton and carbon nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of the reductive methylation products, prepared using methyl-/sup 13/C iodide, suggest that carbon alkylation exceeds oxygen alkylation and that the alkylation of phenolic groups is the dominant O-alkylation reaction. The spectra also suggest that fewer ethers are cleaved in the reaction in liquid ammonia than under the conditions of Sternberg reaction. (32 refs.)"
Note: We are not technically competent to explain the process of "alkylation". However, other, easily-accessible web-based references, explain that coal can be "alkylated" with well-understood comparative ease, and that such alkylated coal compounds, once produced, dissolve readily in a selection of common organic solvents, which makes subsequent refining into useful liquid fuels and chemicals a relatively straightforward process.
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As a break from our somewhat relentless barrage of science journal articles demonstrating the pragmatic reality of coal-to-liquid transformation technologies, herein is acknowledgement of that CTL reality, and a brief review of the technology's economic implications, from a general-audience investment and money-management journal.
The excerpt:
"In addition to petrol, diesel and avgas, the process (Sasol's coal-to-liquid conversion technology) produces a wide range of by-products such as petrochemicals, waxes, feedstocks for plastics manufacture, and fuel gas.
While it’s forecast that the world will run short of conventional oil within a century, with most of the remaining large deposits in politically unstable regions, there is little recognition that coal is an abundant substitute. Enough for more than a thousand years.
The US has the world’s largest coal deposits, with 268 billion tons of recoverable reserves. HSBC says that at a standard conversion rate of two barrels of synthetic fuels from one ton of coal, those reserves are equivalent to the 20 times the nation’s current crude oil reserves.
At capital costs of $700 million for capacity of 10,000 barrels/day and a 30-year life, operating costs of $15/barrel and current coal costs, breakeven for a coal-to-liquids plant in the US would be in the range $39-44 a barrel, assuming no tax incentives.
However, the new Highway Act provides a subsidy of $21 a barrel for commercial-scale CTL projects. Taking that into account, with oil at $50 a barrel (that is, well below current prices around $70), the internal rate of return on such a project would be in the mouth-watering range 22-25 per cent.
It would also be environmentally friendly, as the technology converts dirty coal into “ultra-clean” synthetic diesel and jet fuel that can be used in current engines without adaptation. And “the fuels are easily transportable and marketable, as they are compatible with existing petro-fuel distribution infrastructure” (unlike ethanol-blended petrol, bio-diesel and more radical alternative fuels).
The world isn’t going to run out of oil while there’s all that coal that can be turned into liquid fuels."
An investment in Coal-to-Liquid sounds pretty good, downright "mouth-watering", doesn't it? And, we have enough coal to last for "more than a thousand years".
Moreover, the "US has the world’s largest coal deposits, with 268 billion tons of recoverable reserves... (and) at a standard conversion rate of two barrels of synthetic fuels from one ton of coal, those reserves are equivalent to the 20 times the nation’s current crude oil reserves".
We'll note that, some coal conversion processes posit 3 barrels per ton of coal, rather than the 2 barrels per ton suggested in this article, depending on the coal's grade; and, there's no mention of the commercial by-products that can be co-produced.
We are not going to run out of oil while we have "all that coal that can be turned into liquid fuels". IF WE get off our butts and START turning that coal into oil.
Way past time we did just that.
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Coal Liquefaction Plants Essential - News, Sports, Jobs - The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register
Your own words pretty much summed it up two years ago:
"Coal Liquefaction Plants Essential
By the News-RegisterPOSTED: August 15, 2007
The sooner U.S. leaders begin to support coal liquefaction, the better — both in terms of energy independence and reducing pollution."
We haven't heard much from you in a similar vein since - except that the WV Coal Association has backed your admonition up with solid documentation in their "R&D Blog, by Joe the Miner".
Coal liquefaction plants are essential: They could lead us into energy independence, a cleaner environment and renewable fuel; all, again, as documented by your own, WV, Coal Association.
If all of your readers knew just how real, how "do-able", all of that is, perhaps the message would get through to your political leaders.
It is way past time they did hear that message, don't you think?
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