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Abstract

In the field of chemical fuels, prior art coal gasification produces a fuel value of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen which has a lower BTU than methane. The present process uses coal resources more economically for industry by converting part of the hydrogen and part of the carbon in the carbon monoxide of the gas mixture to methane, by continuously introducing the gas mixture into a fluid bed in the presence of iron under conditions of pressure and temperature which promote the reduction of carbon monoxide to carbon, the formation of iron carbide from the iron and carbon, and the formation of methane and iron from iron carbide and hydrogen, and continuously removing from the fluid bed a methane enriched gas mixture including carbon monoxide and hydrogen having a substantially increased fuel value over the gas mixture introduced into the fluid bed.

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First Claim