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We have told you Ashland Oil's participation in the "H-Coal" synthetic fuel operations in Kentucky, and of their apparent subversion of that pilot plant to, ultimately, supply Hydrogen to one of their subsidiary petroleum refiners.
We have also delivered some rather technical information concerning accounts of corrosion problems encountered in coal-to-liquid conversion plants.
As it happens, Ashland was at least thorough enough to document that same problem in the H-Coal facility, as in the attached article, excerpt following.
Our supposition is that Sasol long ago surmounted all these difficulties, and only await being asked to help us solve them ourselves - if, indeed, we actually do want them solved, so that we can proceed on a sensible path towards a United States liquid fuel self-sufficiency based on coal.
All the evidence we have uncovered so far strongly indicates that we, or at least some powerful influencers in the shadows around us, don't want it, else we would, like South Africa, have long ago had it.
As follows:
"H-Coal Pilot Plant: University of Kentucky Institute for Mining and Minerals Research - findings from the corrosion-monitoring program at the H-Coal Pilot Plant
1983 May 01
Ashland Synthetic Fuels, Inc., KY (USA)
One objective of the H-Coal Pilot Plant was to evaluate materials of construction and establish guidelines for materials for commercial application. In order to meet that objective, a Corrosion Monitoring Program was begun in May 1980. The University of Kentucky Institute for Mining and Minerals Research (IMMR), under ASFI Subcontract HC-59, prepared corrosion coupons for exposure in various areas of the H-Coal process, primarily in the high pressure hydrogenation section, but also including the atmospheric fractionator and sour water and sour gas areas. A total of 33 racks consisting of combinations of 32 different alloys were exposed during four different exposure periods (approximately 200 coupons per exposure period) from May 1980 to November 1982. The coupons were exposd to four different types of coal: Kentucky No. 11, Illinois No. 6, Kentucky No. 9, and Wyodak coal separately and/or in various combinations. To extract as much data as possible, the coupons were examined by various techniques including weight loss determination, metallographic examination and microanalytical examination. The original data, results of the various examinations, trend analysis, discussion of meaningful correlations, and conclusions are presented in this report."
Once again,very detailed stuff about a technology that, in the United States, at least, officially doesn't seem to exist.
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We can include no links in this dispatch, but, somewhere in our GUV's archives, there should exist a full copy of the paper represented by the following abstract, which we believe to be a true and valid reproduction:"BATCHELDER, H. R., DRESSLER, R. G., TENNEY, R. F., SKINNER, L. C., AND HIRST, L. L. Role of Oxygen in the production of Synthetic Liquid Fuels From Coal. Bureau of Mines Rept. of Investigations 4775, 1951, 15 pp.Steps in the production of O2 by the liquefaction and fractionation of air are discussed. All commercial designs involve the following basic steps: (1) Supply of air into the plant apparatus; (2) refrigeration of the apparatus; (3) heat transfer between ingoing air and outgoing products; (4) removal of impurities from the air supply; (5) fractionation of liquefied air into components N2 and O2 and delivery of both as product gases; (6) removal of C2H2. Characteristics of 4 commercial-size plants in this country for the production of O2 are presented, and the type and size of 4 other plants under construction are listed. The relationship of O2-plant size to plant cost and to O2 cost is discussed. Increases in O2 cost are quite rapid as the size of the plant is reduced: $7.00 for a 100-ton plant; $4.80 for 300 tons; and $3.50 for 1,000 tons. The function of O2 in the production of synthetic liquid fuels is primarily the gasification of coal with O2 to produce mixtures of CO+H2, which then may be used directly, in the case of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, or as a source of H2 for coal hydrogenation. Among the potential advantages of the substitution of O2 for air in the coal-gasification step are the following: (1) Fuel economy; (2) increased capacity of equipment; (3) wider range of possible fuels; (4) greater adaptability to pressure operation; and (5) higher range of attainable temperatures. The amount of O2 necessary to produce synthetic fuel by Fischer-Tropsch is about 690 lb. per bbl. of liquid fuel. This amount of O2 Each change of $1.00 per ton for O2 will change the cost per bbl. of synthetic fuel from this process by about $0.35. In the coal-hydrogenation process, a relatively large part of the required H2 is to be recovered from the tail gases by low-temperature separation and produced by reforming the product CH4 with steam. Thus, the O2 requirement for coal gasification is only a fraction of that for Fischer-Tropsch. About 90 lb. of O2 will be required to make 1 bbl. of synthetic fuel by coal hydrogenation. At $5.00 per ton, the O2 cost would amount to about $0.22 per bbl. of oil and at $3.00 to about $0.14. Each change of $1.00 per bbl. in O2 cost will change the cost per bbl. by about $0.04." at $5.00 per ton would amount to $1.72 per bbl. and at $3.00 to $1.03.
We're sending this along to you because it seems a very detailed, very specific cost analysis of one specific component of industrial coal-to-liquid processes, both Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and direct hydrogenation, which are named in the abstract as if they were established and well-known industrial practices. The costs won't be the same nowadays - things have changed since the year you were born, haven't they, Mike? - but the price of oil has gone up a tad, too, hasn't it? We're willing to bet the price proportions, relative to a barrel of oil, are likely to be even more favorable, now.
Note, again, the detail - and this analysis, for the most part, only involves the Oxygen supply, down to a brief census of oxygen producers. And, they only studied the O2 supply since it enables production efficiencies and increased product ranges relative to plain old, freely available, air. But, they also discuss where the Hydrogen for actually transforming coal into a liquid hydrocarbon will come from: CH4 - methane - is produced by the gasification process, apparently, thus exits in the tail gas and can be "reformed", broken down, with steam, with H2 as a product in volumes that will fulfil most of the process requirements; otherwise, it seems, H2 can be derived from the synthesis gas itself.
Explicit, useful data on the science of converting coal into liquid fuel in the US. From 1951.
More proof that we've know how to fulfill our liquid fuel needs, with domestic coal, for many decades. There have to be reasons we haven't been, and are not yet, doing just that; but they cannot, we insist, be good reasons.
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We earlier reported on the H-Coal Coal-to-Liquid conversion technology, and it's pilot plant reduction to practice in Kentucky.
There are more confirming documents, as we told you, and we await any expression of interest before sending them along.
But, we found this one piece to be of special intrigue, and we think, upon review of the author's bona fides, you'll understand why.
Comment follows:
"Molecular weight distributions and size fractionations of H-coal liquids
Received 21 October 1981.
Mohammed Mahfooz Khan
Department of Chemistry, Al-Fateh University, PO Box 13203, Tripoli, Libya
Received 21 October 1981.
Available online 12 August 2003.
Abstract
This Paper deals with a comparative study on the use of gel permeation chromatography (g.p.c.) and vapour pressure osmometry (v.p.o.) to obtain molecular weight data for the hexane-soluble fractions of three H-coal liquids. The use of two types of column packing materials, polyvinylacetate and styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer gels, is described. A successful, preparative use of the polyvinylacetate gel to fractionate the hexane-soluble fraction of H-coal liquid, atmospheric still overhead (ASO), has been established. Molecular weight data obtained by v.p.o. for the benzene-soluble fraction and the pyridine-soluble fraction of the three H-coal liquids are reported. Solvent extraction has been utilized also to find the amount of oil, asphaltenes and asphaltols in the three H-coal liquids.
The work described in this Paper was carried out at the Department of Chemistry, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40208, USA."
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It's a given that our use of coal - whether we burn it for power generation or to smelt metals, or transmute it into highly-desired chemical feed stocks and desperately-needed liquid fuels - will generate carbon dioxide.
We have been explaining that carbon dioxide should not be seen as an environmental "poison", but as a raw material, a valuable by-product of our coal use, which can, through a variety of technologies, be transmuted into very useful products, including more liquid fuel. We have provided substantial documentation attesting to the truth of that assertion.
Herein, from Northwestern University in Illinois, is yet more evidence of that truth.
The excerpt:
"Syngas Production By Coelectrolysis of CO2/H2O: The Basis for a Renewable Energy Cycle
Zhongliang Zhan, Worawarit Kobsiripha, James R. Wilson, Manoj Pillai, Ilwon Kim and Scott A. Barnett
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 2220 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208 and Functional Coating Technology LLC, 1801 Maple Ave., Evanston, Illinois 60201
Abstract
Electrolysis was carried out at 700−800 °C using solid oxide electrochemical cells with H2O−CO2−H2 mixtures at the Ni-YSZ cathode and air at the LSCF-GDC anode. (YSZ = 8 mol %, Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2, GDC = Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95, and LSCF = La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3). The cell electrolysis performance decreased only slightly for H2O−CO2 mixtures compared to H2O electrolysis and was much better than for pure CO22O and CO2 and production of H2 and CO with increasing electrolysis current density. Electrolyzers operated on 25% H2, 25% CO2, and 50% H2O at 800 °C and 1.3 V yielded a syngas production rate of 
7 sccm/cm2. The use of electrolytically produced syngas for producing renewable liquid fuels is discussed; an energy-storage cycle based on such liquid fuels is CO2-neutral, similar to hydrogen, and has the potential to be more efficient and easier to implement." electrolysis. Mass spectrometer measurements showed increasing consumption of H
In sum, as we have several times explained: Carbon Dioxide and Water can be electrolyzed to produce Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen. Those two components, mixed together, comprise "syngas" - the chemical combination which, we have extensively documented, can be readily generated from coal; and, once thus obtained, can be easily catalyzed to produce liquid hydrocarbons, up to, and including, gasoline.
And, it seems important to repeat a passage from the excerpt: "The use of electrolytically produced syngas for producing renewable liquid fuels is discussed; an energy-storage cycle based on such liquid fuels is CO2-neutral, similar to hydrogen, and has the potential to be more efficient ".
An energy cycle based on coal-use byproducts is "renewable", "CO2-neutral" and is likely to be "more efficient".
It seems clear, and, not just demonstrated but proven far beyond question, that coal can be converted into methanol, and into diesel and gasoline-equivalent fuels to supply our nearer-term liquid fuel needs. At the same time, the technology to employ the Carbon Dioxide by-product of our coal use, through sustainable biological and direct chemical means, toward that same end can be developed and deployed. Our coal could thus be conserved to then supply us, through it's established conversion technologies, as we have documented to be possible, feasible, practical and profitable, with the plastics and chemicals manufacturing raw materials that all of us, and all of our children, will want and need in the centuries to come.
Coal can do all of that.
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We're intent on establishing and confirming that some botanical products, those high in cellulose, can be liquefied with coal to provide us with our needed liquid transportation fuels. Such co-liquefaction provides carbon dioxide offsets and helps to establish sustainability - until we refine and commercialize the techniques for direct capture and conversion into liquid fuels of Carbon Dioxide itself, which is also a demonstrated, though still emerging, technology. Our coal resources would be thus conserved to better serve us in their current roles, and in an evolving one as a source of raw materials for our plastics and chemicals manufacturing industries.
The excerpt:
"Liquefaction of sawdust for liquid fuel
Yongjie Yan, Jie Xu, Tingchen Li and Zhengwei Ren
Energy Resource Chemical Engineering Department, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Mei Long Road, Shanghai, 200237 China
Abstract
Pressurized liquefaction of sawdust was carried out in an autoclave in the presence of solvent under cold hydrogen pressure ranging from 2.0 to 5.5 MPa at the temperature range of 150C–450°C. The reaction time varied from 5 to 30 min. Investigations were made on the effects of temperature, reaction time, cold hydrogen pressure and solvent on the liquefaction process. Results indicate that liquefaction of sawdust can start at a temperature of 200°C, much lower than that for coal in a hydrogen-donor solvent, e.g., tetralin which was used in this run of experiment. Oil yield increase with the rise either in temperature and in cold hydrogen pressure or with the longer reaction time."
Please note the use of "tetralin" as a "hydrogen donor" solvent in this report. Tetralin appears as the primary hydrogen donor solvent we've documented to be employed by West Virginia University in their development of direct coal liquefaction technology.
And, don't be misdirected in your thoughts concerning the use of "sawdust", which in itself might seem a very finite resource of limited production and availability. Think instead of it as, simply, cellulose: an abundant, renewable resource available from numerous botanical sources that can be purpose-grown, and grown with nourishment and stimulation directly supplied by the co-products of coal combustion and coal conversion, especially Carbon Dioxide. Cellulose-to-liquid and Coal-to-liquid are similar, complementary and synergistic, quite real, technologies.
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