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Yoichi Koderaa, Koji Ukegawaa, Yutaka Mito*, Masashi Komoto†, Etsuro Ishikawa† and Tetsuo Nakayama
National Research Institute for Pollution and Resources, 16-3 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan
Abstract
Nitrogen compounds were separated efficiently from coal liquids by solvent extraction with methanol and water. Middle distillates of Wandoan and Battle River coal liquid and a mixture of model compounds were employed as feed oils. This paper reports the experimental conditions for the effective separation of nitrogen compounds, such as quinoline and indole. In particular, the effects of extraction solvents on extraction yield and selectivities of nitrogen compounds were investigated.
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Our rocket scientists are working on it now, and we aren't pointing it out that way to be humorous or derisive.
(The "F-T" in the title, in case you wondered, refers to our now-familiar Fischer-Tropsch.)
They, NASA, got us to the moon in less than ten years. Maybe they can free us from the chains of foreign oil suppliers, the way they freed us from the chains of earth's gravity, in the same amount of time.
A meaningful excerpt:
"...we know in the future these fuels are going to become important to aviation. Petroleum is dwindling and you're going to need to make fuel out of coal, natural gas and biomass." — Dan Bulzan, NASA Glenn Research Center and AAFEX project manager
The words of this genuine rocket scientist bear repeating: "...you're (we're - JtM) going to need to make fuel out of coal...".
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We've demonstrated that technologies exist to not only capture CO2 emissions, from coal power or coal-to-liquid factories, but to recycle it into more liquid fuel.But, another greenhouse gas - Nitrous Oxide - is emitted from coal-use processes, as well. And, even though it is generated in smaller quantities than CO2, it is also considered, on a weight-to-weight basis, to be a more potent agent of "global warming".Both gasses are sort of "lumped" together by regulatory bodies and agencies when it comes to the calculation of emission effects.As is getting to be routine, our South African coal-to-liquid friends, Sasol, have addressed, as in the enclosed article, the problem of NO2 emissions. And, they have addressed them so well that they are actually given "carbon credits" for their coal use processes, credits they can sell, like a commodity, to other greenhouse gas emitters whose processes aren't so "clean".Some excerpts:"Sasol, a South African Company has become the first company globally to register a nitrous oxide (N2O) abatement project using secondary catalyst technology to convert the greenhouse gas N2O into harmless nitrogen and oxygen gases."
"The project is expected to earn significant income through sales of the resulting carbon credits. A share of these carbon credits will be invested to benefit local community-based sustainable development projects."And, remember, we have documented that coal-derived liquid fuels actually burn cleaner than their petroleum-based counterparts.Producing our liquid fuels from coal would actually benefit the environment.
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Some excerpts:
"For a plant making liquid fuel from coal, rather than using carbon monoxide and hydrogen as intermediates, which is the current method (in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and Sasol's processes - JtM), one can reduce the overall carbon dioxide emissions by using carbon dioxide and hydrogen as intermediates in the process, say the researchers."
"That example showed, paradoxically, if you use hydrogen and carbon dioxide, which looks like a worse alternative, you could actually do better," says Glasser (Prof. David Glasser, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa - JtM)."
"The example stated already reaches beyond mere research, and Glasser says that there is a pilot plant running in China and a demonstration plant in Australia, which incorporate these ideas."
The CO2 used as an intermediate for liquid fuel production can be generated intentionally as syngas from coal in a coal-to-liquid plant, or collected from coal power or coal-to-liquid plant incidental emissions, or sucked from the atmosphere itself. The Hydrogen can be electrolyzed from water - generating clean and green pure Oxygen as a by-product.
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In this very recent article, you will find these, excerpted, passages:
"The best way to make methanol is by steam reforming methane, produced when syngas - a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide - is turned into liquid hydrocarbons via reactions such as the Fischer-Tropsch process."
(We must assume by this, with our limited capacity and understanding, that methane is produced as a by-product of converting coal to liquid fuel via Fischer-Tropsch processing. Another bonus of the process, perhaps.)
"The process is used today to make diesel and other liquid fuels from coal, and kept South African cars going during the country's international isolation in the 1980s and 90s."
We send this only to reinforce the fact that the technology for making liquid fuels, and chemical manufacturing raw materials, from coal, is established and understood. Why it has not yet been reduced to broad commercial practice in the United States, with all the domestic economic benefits such an industry would create, is a question that must be answered. And, the answer, since we don't have such an industry, with all it's benefits, has to be wrong. It should be corrected.
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