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In an earlier dispatch, now accessible on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site via the link:
Wyoming Converts Coal Ash to Construction Aggregates | Research & Development; concerning: United States Patent 6,334,895 - Producing Manufactured Materials from Coal Combustion Ash; 2002; Inventor: Alan Bland, Wyoming; Assignee: The University of Wyoming Research Corporation; Abstract: This invention discloses a system for cold bond processing of combustion ash which enhances various characteristics of the resulting cured consolidated combustion ash materials. Specifically, the invention relates to processing techniques which enhances both density and strength of the of the consolidated combustion ash materials. The invention also relates to processing techniques which control various chemical reactions which assure that certain types of minerals are formed in the proper amounts which results in a cured consolidated combustion ash material which has greater dimensional stability and enhanced resistance to degradation. Embodiments for both normal weight and light weight combustion ash aggregates are disclosed which meet various ASTM and AASHTO specifications";
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Since free, elemental Hydrogen is required somewhere along the line by some processes for the direct conversion of Coal into liquid hydrocarbon fuels, such as West Virginia University's "West Virginia Process", some information concerning which can be gleaned via:
WVU Hydrogenates Coal Tar | Research & Development; concerning: "Hydrogenation of Naphthalene and Coal Tar Distillate over Ni/Mo/Al2O3 Catalyst; Abhijit Bhagavatula; Thesis submitted to the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Chemical Engineering; Abstract: The hydrogenation of naphthalene and coal-tar distillates has been carried out in a Trickle Bed Reactor, in which the liquid is allowed to flow through the catalyst bed in the presence of hydrogen. A ... trickle bed reactor can be used to hydrogenate coal-derived solvents. The process of converting solid coal to liquid is called liquefaction. Coal is liquefied by reacting with hydrogen. ... Therefore, the process of producing liquid fuels from solid coal necessitates increasing the ratio of hydrogen to carbon. This can be done either by removing carbon or by adding hydrogen";
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United States Patent Application: 0090126259
We've documented many times, that, through an initial process of gasification, followed by catalyst-promoted chemical condensation, Coal can be converted into the valuable alcohol, Methanol.
Such an operation is, in fact, being conducted on a profitable commercial basis by Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, Tennessee; again as we have documented, for just one example, in:
Coal to Methanol - Eastman & Air Products | Research & Development; which concerns Eastman's: "Commercial-Scale Demonstration of a Liquid-Phase Methanol Process; Abstract: The Eastman Chemical Company operates a coal gasification complex in Kingsport. Tennessee. The primary output of this plant is carbonylation-derived acetic anhydride. The required methyl acetate is made from methanol and acetic acid. Methanol is currently produced from syngas ... . (Syngas made from Coal.) An Air Products/Eastman joint venture, with partial funding from the Department of Energy under the Clean Coal Technology Program, has been formed to build a demonstration-scale liquid-phase methanol plant ... . In an array of integrated plants, coal is gasified and the resulting synthesis gas purified to a high degree. This gas, which consists chiefly of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is used to feed the chemical plants. Methanol is produced in one plant by the Lurgi low-pressure gas-phase process".
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As we earlier reported, and as now accessible on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site via:
Leftover Gets a Makeover: Professor Develops a New Use for Coal Ash | Research & Development; wherein we learn that:
"An assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Professor Mulalo Doyoyo, has developed a new structural material based on (the) leftovers from coal burning. Known as Cenocell, the material offers attributes that include high strength and light weight – without the use of cement, an essential ingredient of conventional concrete";
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A number of times during the course of our reportage over the last several years, we've documented for you the development of a technology that has been labeled by some as "syntrolysis", that is, the co-electrolysis of Steam, H2O, and Carbon Dioxide, CO2, with the breakdown of those compounds into their simpler elemental and molecular constituents; most significantly Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide, which can then serve as the components of a synthesis gas and be catalytically condensed, as via the venerable, almost generic, Fischer-Tropsch process, into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons.
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