Patent ID: 8277525

Claim:
A method to transport energy comprising the steps of: a) providing an input chemical species comprising: (i) at least one gas species containing carbon, wherein the species containing carbon is selected from the group consisting of coal, activated carbon, char, biomass, and combinations thereof, and (ii) a component selected from the group consisting of methane, hydrogen, water, a solid species containing carbon, and combinations thereof, and the input species having a heat of combustion equal to or less than methane; b) converting at least a portion of the input chemical species using a reforming process into an output chemical species that has at least one new gaseous species having a higher heat of combustion than methane, the output chemical species consisting of a chemical species selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, methane, acetylene, ethane, ethylene, propylene, and combinations thereof, wherein the total number of moles of the input chemical species is greater than the total number of moles of the output chemical species minus the number moles of hydrogen in the output chemical species, with the proviso that the output chemical species does not contain CO or CO 2 , and wherein the heat of combustion of carbon is maintained in the reformed species without producing carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide; c) optimizing the reforming process to produce hydrogen gas; d) separating the hydrogen gas from the output chemical species to form a high energy transport gas; e) recycling the hydrogen separated from the output chemical species back into the input chemical species for reforming; f) separating methane from the output chemical species and recycling the methane back into the input chemical species for reforming; and g) transporting the high energy transport gas by conventional transportation means to an end use, wherein the process is optimized to maximize total heat of combustion of the high energy transport gas.