Australia Recycles CO2

Herein are three links and accompanying excerpts, detailing, first:
 
That zeolites, as used by Exxon-Mobil in their "MTG"(r), methanol-to-gasoline, Process, wherein the methanol is posited to be made from coal, can also be, as we have earlier documented from other sources, used to catalyze the hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide, as is emitted from a wide variety of natural and human sources, into hydrocarbon gasses and liquids which can then be further synthesized into liquid fuels and plastics manufacturing raw materials, thus recycling and sequestering, in a productive and profitable way, CO2 emissions, whether from natural or artificial sources.
 
And, second:
 
That zeolites can be obtained in abundance from coal combustion ash.
 
Comment follows: 
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J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2006 Apr 26;128(16):5322-3.

Design of effective zeolite catalysts for the complete hydrogenation of CO2.

Chan B., Radom, L.

School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. chan_b@chem.usyd.edu.au

Ab initio molecular orbital calculations have been applied to the study of the three-stage zeolite-catalyzed hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol. The results present strong evidence that appropriate chemical modifications to ZSM-5 can lead to significantly lower energy barriers for the three component reactions, that is, hydrogenation of CO2, HCO2H, and CH2O. Zeolites incorporating either Na+ or Ge are more effective catalysts than conventional acidic zeolites for the hydrogenation of CO2 to give HCO2H, but amine-based zeolites do not lead to significantly lower barriers for any of the three hydrogenation reactions. However, we predict that when all three features, namely, Na+, N, and Ge, are incorporated in the zeolite, there is a dramatic improvement in catalytic activity for all three reactions.


J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008 Jul 30;130(30):9790-9.

Zeolite-catalyzed hydrogenation of carbon dioxide and ethene.

Chan B., Radom, L.

School of Chemistry and Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

Ab initio molecular orbital theory and density functional theory calculations have been used to study the three-stage zeolite-catalyzed hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol and the hydrogenation of C2H 4 to ethane, with the aim of designing an effective zeolite catalyst for these reactions. ... . It is found that appropriately designed zeolites can provide excellent catalysis for these reactions, particularly for the hydrogenation of CO2, HCO2H and CH2O, ... . We propose that alkali metal zeolites ... could be very effective catalysts for hydrogenation processes.

 
Large-scale synthesis of artificial zeolite from coal fly ash
 
Ryo Moriyama, Shohei Takeda, Masaki Onozaki, Yukuo Katayama, Kouji Shiota, Tomoya Fukuda, Hiroaki Sugihara and Yuichi Tani 

The Institute of Applied Energy, Shinbashi SY BLDG. 14-2 Nishishinbashi 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0003, Japan

The Institute of Applied Energy, 2-17, Tsukisamu-Higashi, Toyohira-ku, Sapporo 062-8517, Japan

Institute of Technology, Penta-Ocean Construction Co., Ltd., 1534-1, Yonku-cho, Nishinasuno-machi, Nasu-gun, Tochigi 329-2746, Japan


February 2005
 
 
A new process for converting coal fly ash to an artificial zeolite is described. The process is comprised of a high-temperature operation and water removal during the operation. Suitable operation parameters of the process were investigated using a test unit, and the optimal conditions were found ... . The zeolites obtained from a pilot plant had a higher cation exchangeable capacity than those from the test unit and were comparable to zeolites prepared using a conventional method."
 
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So, we can use the solid waste of coal combustion to recycle the gaseous waste of coal combustion into liquids of utility and value.