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As we've previously reported, both Auburn University, in Alabama, a member, with West Virginia University, of the Consortium for Fossil Fuel Science, and the Air Products and Chemicals Company, in Pennsylvania, have worked under various contracts with our United States Department of Energy in the development of Coal liquefaction technologies targeted on the conversion of Coal into petroleum substitute products.
Herein, we learn that they have actually collaborated, for the USDOE, on the development of such technologies, and together achieved significant improvements in the ways in which Coal, and Hydrogen donor solvents based on Coal tars, can be processed and reacted in order to improve the rates and productivity of processes that convert Coal into liquid hydrocarbons.
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We submit herein exposition of even more technology, developed by the petroleum industry, for converting solid Carbon into the raw materials from which liquid hydrocarbon fuels can be synthesized.
Of most interest to us in this example, though, are the sources of that Carbon, which, in this case, are specified to include the still-carbonaceous residues resulting from various types of Coal processing intended to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels, or, at least, a crude liquid Coal product that is compatible with conventional petroleum refinery raw material streams.
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Production of hydrocarbon synthesis gas
We've lately been reporting on the use of "Oxygen donor" substances, the oxide compounds of specific metals, in Coal gasification processes, as, for one especially intriguing example, in our report of:
Oklahoma Oxygen Donor Coal Gasification | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,496,370 - Zinc Oxide-Char Gasification Process; 1985; Phillips Petroleum Company; Abstract: In the gasification of char with zinc oxide, the improvement which comprises reacting the off-gas stream of gaseous zinc and carbon monoxide with steam at elevated temperatures in a second reactor means thereby oxidizing the zinc to zinc oxide and yielding a second gaseous stream containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen';
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As seen in one of our earlier reports, as accessible via:
USDOE Hires Exxon to Improve Low-Rank Coal Liquefaction | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,304,655 - Liquefaction Process; 1981; Assignee: Exxon Research and Engineering Company; Abstract: Scale formation during the liquefaction of lower ranking coals and similar carbonaceous materials is significantly reduced and/or prevented by pretreatment with a combination of pretreating agents comprising SO2 and an oxidizing agent.Government Interests: The Government of the United States of America has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. EF-77-A-01-2893 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy; This invention relates to an improved process for ... liquefying coal and similar carbonaceous materials";
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Production of industrial gas mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide
We've lately been documenting the use of "Oxygen donors" in various Carbon conversion processes; such Oxygen donors being, typically, oxide compounds of various specific metals that are able to supply Oxygen, in a controlled and restricted way, to effect the partial oxidation of Coal, and other Carbon-containing substances.
The purpose of their use, again, is to restrict the supply of Oxygen so that, even though the oxidation reaction is able to proceed, it is incomplete and results in the production of relatively more of the desired Carbon Monoxide, as opposed to the less-desired Carbon Dioxide.
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