Direct use of methane in coal liquefaction - Patent 4687570
In a recent dispatch, we documented that Methane, as can be synthesized via Sabatier-type Carbon Dioxide recycling, or the Hydro, or Steam, Gasification of Coal, can, according to Exxon and collaborating researchers in Australia, be used to improve the conversion of Coal into liquid hydrocarbons.
Herein, we document that, not only does our United States Government know that Methane can improve the process of Coal Liquefaction, they own the rights to use it for that purpose.
Excerpts follow from:
"United States Patent 4687570; Direct use of Methane in Coal Liquefaction
Inventors: Sundaram, Muthu S. (Shoreham, NY); Steinberg, Meyer (Melville, NY)
(Steinberg, as we have many times documented, is a CO2 expert at the USDOE's Brookhaven Lab.)
Date: August 18, 1987
Assignee: The United States of America
Abstract: This invention relates to a process for converting solid carbonaceous material, such as coal, to liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons utilizing methane, generally at a residence time of about 20-120 minutes at a temperature of 250-750 C., preferably 350-450 C., pressurized up to 6000 psi, and preferably in the 1000-2500 psi range, preferably directly utilizing methane 50-100% by volume in a mix of methane and hydrogen. A hydrogen donor solvent or liquid vehicle such as tetralin, tetrahydroquinoline, piperidine, and pyrolidine may be used in a slurry mix where the solvent feed is 0-100% by weight of the coal or carbonaceous feed. Carbonaceous feed material can either be natural, such as coal, wood, oil shale, petroleum, tar sands, etc., or man-made residual oils, tars, and heavy hydrocarbon residues from other processing systems."
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Note the advised use of the Hydrogen-donor solvent "tetralin", as specified by WVU, as we have many times documented, in their "West Virginia Process" for Direct Coal Liquefaction.
For more than twenty years, our US Government has known about, has owned the rights to, a technology that could use a product, Methane, which can be synthesized from recycled Carbon Dioxide, to improve the efficiency and productivity of converting Coal into Liquid Fuels.
