Turn Soft Coal into Natural Gas and then, Carbon Fiber

I was watching the Military Channel and tuned into the WWII bombing campaign against the German’s coal conversion plants.  Even after losing the Romanian oil fields to the Russians, the Germans were able to keep themselves in the fighting by converting coal into gasoline for their war machines.  I did a little digging and found out that the by-product of the coal conversion was natural gas.

Isn’t this interesting.  The Germans developed a technology which was critical to their survival and somehow, this coal conversion technology got lost or buried at the end of World War II.  It seems to me that this technology could have easily been applied to the vast coal fields in the USA; instead we started pumping oil in vast quantities out of the Persian Gulf.  Perhaps the Oil Companies bought the technology and made sure it was buried deeply.

Hey, without all that cheap oil, I would not have grown up in the United States that I did.  Its like trying to imagine writing on this website without Microsoft ever happening.

But, what the Hey, I asked my Tesla Spirit if there was a cheap, quick/rapid way to convert coal into Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). I got an immediate Yes.  First, you must use “soft” coal; not anthracite.  Crush the soft coal into coal dust; this process will release something that people have been calling coal gas for hundred of years.  The canary in the mine was all about coal gas. This tells us that coal is already being converted to gas naturally.

But that natural release of coal gas is not efficient enough.  In my process, the coal dust is hit with very specific frequencies using several wave lengths.  This is done on conveyor belts and large quantities of natural gas are released and collected with low powered suction.  This natural gas is cooled and turned into LNG.

What’s the big deal?  In the United States LNG is very cost-effective because of the success of Fracking; the price of natural gas is much more cost-effective than gasoline or diesel fuel.  There is even a natural gas pipeline infrastructure in place supporting most major US Cities.  The biggest problem with LNG as a fuel is getting it to industrial customers in quantities that are needed.  What does this mean?  Generally, it means building another pipeline; do you have any idea how difficult another pipeline is?  Think Keystone Pipeline!

Say you own a coal-fired electrical generation plant and you are currently getting very long train loads of coal as fuel.  The Obama administration is having its EPA do everything they can to kill coal as a fuel in the US.  Soon, you will have to convert to LNG, but in enough quantity to replace the coal; that means a pipeline.  Here is where my new invention is a better solution.  Instead of a pipeline, set up a coal crushing plant, oops, they already have one and are already burning coal dust mixed into a slurry with water.  Now, the process is a lot easier, redirect the coal dust into the natural gas conversion process, collect the gas, chill it and send it to the furnaces in an on-plant pipeline.

Now take this approach and apply it to any industrial factory anywhere in the world.  Most industrial plants are in close proximity to railroads; ship the coal in and convert it on-site and it will meet environmental requirements and be more cost-effective than gasoline, diesel fuel and, perhaps, electricity.

What about the residue?  After extracting all of the natural gas from the coal powder, the coal powder is the perfect substance to make carbon fiber from.

This idea is wonderful for the United States, but is applicable in other parts of the world as well.  Have fun figuring this one out.