http://www.wvcoal.com/Research-Development/wvu-coal-liquefaction-yields-50-oil.html WVU Coal Liquefaction Yields $50 Oil Quantex Energy; wherein we're told: "Quantex Energy Inc is developing a process which seeks to refine coal as easily and inexpensively as crude oil processing. Taking advantage of the fact that the hydrocarbon refining industry has already developed the technology for "upgrading" heavy hydrocarbons such as Venezuelan Orinoco crude, or Alberta Oil Sands crude, Quantex Energy Inc seeks to produce liquids that meet the same specifications as heavy crude. The Quantex technology involves making a partially refined synthetic crude oil from coal, which is then further refined into synthetic gasoline and diesel as well as liquid propane gas and other hydrocarbon fuel products similar to hydrocarbon fuels derived from petroleum crude oil. The Quantex process itself does not produce CO2!") “'Yes, it’s true - almost for sure,” says Eberth with a grin. “We’ve proven the technology in the lab, producing about one barrel per day. That’s a larger bench test than usual. We’re about to do the detailed engineering for a pilot plant producing up to 150 barrels per day [b/d] at Beaumont, Texas. The next move will be a series of reactors, each 1,000 b/d, which can be scaled up progressively to form a commercial plant with a capacity of 20,000 b/d or more. The commercial operation could launch as early as 2013.'” (Ironic, ain't it? The West Virginia Process for converting Coal into liquid fuels will be first reduced to practice in the state of Texas.) Quantex ranks as a micro-firm at this stage but it has at least one powerful ally. New Hope Corporation Limited is an Australian coal mining firm with a market capitalization of US$4.4 billion. A partner in Quantex, New Hope reported in 2010 that it had invested $4 million in the direct CTL process, and will inject another $35 million this year and next. http://www.cedarswv.com/

http://www.americanfuelscoalition.com/2012/01/06/cleaner-cheaper/ SRI International is developing a process that combines coal and natural gas to produce liquid transportation fuels that are substantially cleaner and cheaper to make than existing synthetic fuels. SRI claims its process addresses three liabilities that have slowed the commercialization of the technology. By blending some natural gas into the conventional coal-to-liquids (CTL) process, the private research lab, based in Menlo Park, California, claims to have eliminated CTL’s carbon footprint, slashed water consumption by over 70 percent, and more than halved its capital cost. Chan Park, a gasification and synthetic fuels expert at the University of California, Riverside’s Center for Environmental Research & Technology, cautions that SRI’s work is at an early stage. But Park says the process “could be really exciting” as a domestic alternative to petroleum fuel in coal and gas-rich countries such as the U.S.—if it can be demonstrated at pilot scale. SRI’s process is the fruit of a 2008 solicitation by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) seeking a cheap, carbon-free CTL process for producing jet fuel. DARPA awarded SRI $1,612,905 to pursue a novel concept: using methane from natural gas as a hydrogen source instead of water in a new CTL process. Conventional CTL plants blend pure oxygen, steam, and coal at high temperatures and pressures, generating carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas that can be catalytically combined to synthesize liquid hydrocarbon fuels. The gasification also generates carbon dioxide, partly from the combustion of some coal with the pure oxygen, and partly through undesirable reactions between water and carbon. In SRI’s process, methane preheated to 600 °C displaces much of the water required, thus reducing the unwanted reaction with the coal. The methane also reduces the amount of heat absorbed by the gasification process, eliminating the need for oxygen and combustion to maintain the 1,400 to 1,500 °C temperatures the process requires. As a result SRI says it can eliminate the use of oxygen-fired combustion that the process requires, making do with zero-carbon renewable or nuclear power instead. Skipping oxygen not only eliminates a source of carbon dioxide, but contributes substantial cost savings by eliminating the need for an oxygen plant. Further savings are achieved through more efficient fuel synthesis. SRI estimates that its zero-carbon process will generate jet fuel for $2.82 per gallon

Peabody Energy and GreatPoint Energy today announced they have signed an agreement to pursue development of coal-to-gas and coal-to-hydrogen projects in the United States and around the world with carbon capture and storage (CCS) that would achieve near-zero carbon emissions while liberating vast quantities of stranded oil. The projects would be developed using GreatPoint's proprietary Bluegas(TM) technology, which utilizes catalytic hydromethanation to create pure hydrogen and substitute natural gas (SNG). This process is more efficient and cost effective than conventional gasification. The hydrogen will be used for industrial applications or combusted to generate near-zero carbon electricity. The SNG can be transported in the existing pipeline infrastructure and used as fuel in home heating, power plants or industrial processes. "Peabody is advancing multiple projects with GreatPoint Energy using 21st Century technologies for greater utilization of coal in a low-carbon economy," said Fredrick D. Palmer, Peabody's Senior Vice President of Government Relations and head of the company's Btu Conversion activities. "Greater deployment of green coal with carbon capture is a clean energy solution." Catalytic hydromethanation, when combined with advanced power generation, could eliminate more than 90 percent of carbon emissions and nearly double the efficiency of conventional coal combustion or Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle power plants, according to a recently published study by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory. The technology captures the carbon dioxide (CO2), which can be used for domestic oil production through enhanced oil recovery. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that there are more than 60 billion barrels of stranded U.S. oil, and the International Energy Agency estimates there are more than 200 billion barrels of stranded oil worldwide. These resources could be recovered with injection of captured CO2. http://forums.anandtech.com/archive/index.php/t-2056930.html

http://www.mit.edu/people/leichen/Thermodynamic_Analysis_of_the_coal_to_SNG_process.pdf From end-to-end in hydromethanation, coal is pulverized and mixed with the selected catalyst. Before feeding the impregnated catalyst-coal into the gasifier, it is dried to remove as much moisture from the fuel as possible. Gasifiers are then fed with the feedstock and begin introducing steam into the environment to perform the gasification. Post the hydromethanation process, carbon monoxide and hydrogen must be separated from the methane product. The cryogenic distillation process effectively separates methane from the synthesis gas (a process with an energy penalty lower than the oxygen separation from air in an ASU).