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We've cited the Pittsburgh-area Gulf Oil scientists named as the inventors in this US patent previously.
However, since we are, via separate dispatch, today sending you yet more information, originating in Japan, via our report of: "United States Patent: 6340437 - Preparing Synthesis Gas By Autothermal Reforming",
concerning the plain fact that Carbon Dioxide can be reacted with Methane, and thereby be made to form a hydrocarbon syngas suitable for catalytic condensation into liquid fuels and other valuable chemical products, we wanted to again affirm that Methane, which can thus be used to recycle Carbon Dioxide, can be readily manufactured via the gasification of Coal.
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Since today, via separate dispatch, we are sending along report of: "United States Patent: 4022810 - Methane Synthesis Catalyst", which was awarded, in 1977, to Pittsburgh-area Gulf Oil scientists, for a technology wherein mixtures of Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide, or, just Carbon Dioxide, as they specify, alone, as "derived from the gasification of coal", can be converted into Methane, we wanted to again confirm that Methane, once we have it, can be reacted with even more Carbon Dioxide, and made thereby to generate even more hydrocarbon synthesis gas.
This example of bi-reforming and tri-reforming Carbon Dioxide recycling technology comes from Japan. And, it confirms earlier reports we've made concerning such technology, which originated, as we've documented, within the petroleum industry shortly after WWII; and, development of which, in the United States, continues at a number of institutions, including, as we've many times referenced, Penn State University.
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In a separate dispatch today, we are sending along report of: "United States Patent: 6358041 - Heat Shield for Burner Nozzle Face; 2002; Assignee: Eastman Chemical, TN", which discloses details of a "burner nozzle for the production of synthesis gas ... consisting of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen from ... (a) pumpable slurry of finely particulated coal and water".
That patented technology demonstrates, as we attempt to emphasize in the report, just how highly-evolved the technology for converting Coal, through interactions with Water, into a synthesis gas suitable for catalytic condensation into hydrocarbon fuels actually is.
However, one drawback to Eastman's, and similar, technology, is that it relies on the partial oxidation of Coal to supply the necessary heat energy to convert the bulk of Coal, and Water, into hydrocarbon syngas.
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In this submission, we're sending along information that illustrates, yet again, just how sophisticated and thorough our knowledge of Coal gasification, specifically Coal hydro-gasification, to form a hydrocarbon synthesis gas, actually is.
We preface our discussion by noting that the Eastman Chemical technology disclosed herein is yet another "partial oxidation" process, which relies on the controlled and limited oxidation of Coal to provide both the energy and the raw materials needed for the production and subsequent processing of hydrocarbon syngas.
Such processes lead to the co-production of some Carbon Dioxide, as noted in our excerpts from the Disclosure. And, some of the Coal's content of potential chemical energy is thus lost in during the partial oxidation.
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Production of hydrogen and carbon monoxide
We previously submitted report, as accessible via: Eastman Chemical CO2 to Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development | News; of: "United States Patent 5,068,057 - Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Carbon Monoxide; 1991; Assignee; Eastman Kodak Company, New York", wherein Eastman company scientists working at their Kingsport, Tennessee, Coal-to-Methanol conversion factory, disclosed their technique for recycling Carbon Dioxide, reclaimed from whatever source, into a synthesis gas which could be catalytically condensed into liquid hydrocarbons.
Herein, we see that other Eastman scientists, working at another Eastman facility, about which we have earlier reported, in Texas, continued to develop that technology for the productive recycling of Carbon Dioxide, and were, later in the same decade, awarded yet another United States Patent, in which is disclosed what we take to be a very sophisticated process - which reflects a very high degree of understanding of the technology among the Eastman scientists involved - wherein Carbon Dioxide can not only be transformed into hydrocarbon synthesis gas; but, the admixtures of other raw materials, including Methane, Steam and elemental Hydrogen, can be adjusted within certain ranges, so that a synthesis gas of variable composition, suitable for catalytic condensation into a range of specific liquid hydrocarbons, can be produced.
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