Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University Sendai 980-8577 Japan
Engineering Department, Ishii Iron Works Co. Ltd., 6-5-1 Higashi-kojiya, Ohta-ku Tokyo Japan
Production Engineering Laboratory, Technology Research Center, Japan National Oil Corporation, 1-2-2 Hamada, Mihama-ku Chiba, 261-0025 Japan;
Abstract
The activity and durability of the catalysts prepared by the oxidation–reduction treatment of (various percentage blends of Cobalt, Zirconium, and Nickel - JtM) alloys have been investigated for simultaneous methanation of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. It has been found that the (Nickel–Zirconium) catalyst shows the highest activity among the catalysts examined, and the activity of the Cobalt–Zirconium catalyst is lower than those of the nickel-based catalysts, in agreement with the activity for the solo methanation of carbon dioxide. On all the catalysts, carbon monoxide reacts preferentially with hydrogen, and is completely converted into methane at and above 523 K. The remaining hydrogen further reacts with carbon dioxide to form methane. The methanation rate in the H2–CO–CO2 mixed gas is higher than that in H2–CO mixed gas without CO2."
There is more technical rhetoric in the unedited Abstract, but the gist of it is: These Japanese researchers discovered that blending Carbon Monoxide, an essential component of coal-derived syngas directed to liquid fuel synthesis, with Carbon Dioxide, in the presence of Hydrogen and certain non-exotic metal catalysts, actually enhanced and increased the conversion of Carbon species into the Hydrocarbon gas, Methane, which, we have documented earlier, from other sources, can be further, and efficiently, synthesized into the liquid fuel and, as it serves in Exxon-Mobil's MTG(r) Process, gasoline precursor, Methanol.
The conclusion, again, is: "The methanation rate in the H2–CO–CO2 mixed gas is higher than that in H2–CO mixed gas without CO2."
Carbon Dioxide improves the conversion process, and it increases the production of fuel from a mixture of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, which is, essentially, "syngas", as can be made, as we have thoroughly documented, from coal.
So, synthesis gas derived from coal can be combined with Carbon Dioxide derived from the combustion of coal to enhance the production of a fuel gas that can, itself, again as we have elsewhere thoroughly documented, be converted into a liquid fuel, gasoline precursor and plastics manufacturing raw material.
We really don't want to be stuffing all of our CO2 down geologic storage rat holes to help Big Oil scrape out a few more drops of petrol to extort us with, or to tax our coal-use industries out of existence through Cap and Trade legislation because of it, do we?
Not when we can recycle CO2 that arises from our coal use, ultimately, into gasoline.