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We think the authors' list interesting:
"Heng-rui Nieha, Shu-cai Guoa, Shu-chang Zhaoa, Qi Lina and Zhi-dong Chuia
aCoal Chemical Engineering Research Division, Department of Chemical Engineering, Dalian Institute of Technology, Dalian, Liao-ning People's Republic of China"
China's where our Benwood CTL facility made off to, isn't it? - just one of China's planned 88 coal-to-liquid plants - most of the production from which will be devoted to the manufacture of chemicals and fertilizer.
Here's an excerpt:
"Abstract
A brown coal, peat and oil shale were subjected to a rapid pyrolysis process and medium-heat-value gases together with tar were collected. The char residue was of high activity and suitable for gasification to create a two-stage gasification system. The coal-tar is used for manufacturing liquid fuels and chemicals..."
Peat, again, for Pete's sake, and, oil shale. We should again take a look, as Joe once did back in the Seventies for WVU, as they're doing in Schuykill, PA, into the recoverable organic content of typical (WV) mine wastes.
And, we have documented earlier how you can make liquids from coal, and other interesting things, like cellulosic bio sources, via pyrolysis. There are other techniques, as well, that can get 'er done.
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"Abstract
Peat is a promising raw material for synthetic liquid fuel production. Raw peat with moisture content 85–95 wt% can be liquefied without preliminary drying. It may be treated with CO at an initial pressure of 5.5–8.3 MPa and at a temperature of 300–350 °C in the presence of K2CO3. Dewatering and liquefaction take place simultaneously..."
By:
"Pehr Björnbom, Lena Granath, Arne Kannel, Gerth Karlsson, Lars Lindström and Emilia P-Björnbom
Department of Chemical Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, S-100 44, Stockholm, Sweden".
So, good ole' Swedish Peat is "promising" as a raw material for liquid fuel manufacture. What, for Pete's sake, about WV bituminous coal? It has higher BTU density, lower intrinsic moisture and fewer inorganic contaminants.
With some seriousness, comparing Swedish Peat to WV bituminous, when it comes to organic "kick", is like comparing freshly-fermented Scandinavian mead to freshly-distilled WV 'shine.
Ain't no comparison: Far more bang for your buck with Mountain State products. And, we don't want that attempt at semi-humorous analogy to be distracting. It is the plain truth.
Sweden, and peat. Why not WV, and bituminous coal?
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"U.S. researchers use algae in coal plants
BLOOMINGTON, Ind., March 16 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers at Indiana University are studying the effects of algae on carbon dioxide from coal plants.
Algae naturally absorb carbon dioxide and could reduce the levels released into the atmosphere at coal plants, The (Bloomington, Ind.) Herald-Times reports.
"We hope it would absorb at least half, maybe more," said Mark Menefee, IU assistant director for utilities.
If carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants could be cut in half, they would have the same level of emissions as natural gas plants.
The carbon dioxide would be recycled and thrown into the boilers with the coal.
In the lab, gases with a controlled percentage of carbon dioxide are being fed into vats of algae, which are under grow lights. Researchers will measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the gas after it is mixed with the algae."
We have previously described this option, and wanted to note, again, that there might be better ways to use the algae than just tossing it back into the boiler furnace. For instance, jet planes have now flown in several places around the world on liquid fuel made from algae, and there are a number of companies, such as Sapphire, in the business of commercializing algae-based liquid fuels. And, the United Kingdom has, or had, an advanced program in place to capture emissions with algae in large bio-reactors. We're still behind the curve.
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An old story, Mike, from 2006. We'll try to find out what's new. But, an excerpt:
"H&WB Corp. has signed a long-term cooperation agreement with MG Mining and Energy Corp. and affiliate Sultan Energy Philippines Corp. that will pave the way for the establishment of Southeast Asia’s first coal-to-liquids plant."
And, like a lot of these projects around the globe, it's planning to use low-quality lignite. Maybe lignite's easier to crack, we don't know. But, on a weight-unit basis, it's BTU content is lower, and it's dross content higher, than WV bituminous.
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Just some additional info to demonstrate that we can do a lot more with coal than keep our cars and trucks -and/or, as was the case with Germany and Japan, our jeeps and tanks - rolling/crawling.
An excerpt:
"Eastman Chemical Company first initiated its Chemicals from Coal program in the mid-1970s. The program led to the successful commercialization of a process to produce acetic anhydride entirely from coal-based synthesis gasdemonstrate the viability of replacing petroleum and natural gas based processes with processes based entirely on coal derived synthesis gas." (danged useful/versatile stuff, ain't it?) in 1983. However, Eastman Chemical Company did not stop to work with on chemicals from coal with the attainment of the acetic anhydride process and they continued to look at the additional processes for chemicals from coal. In this manuscript, Eastman Chemical Company will discuss the case for coal which led Eastman Chemical Company to take a leadership role in the production of chemicals from coal and then present three case studies, including the commercially practiced Eastman acetic anhydride process and potentially competitive processes for vinyl acetate and methacrylic acid, which
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