A long time ago now, we reported on the developments at Sandia National Laboratory, where scientist Rich Diver and his colleagues have refined technology that would enable us to capture Carbon Dioxide, as emitted from coal combustion or coal conversion facilities, among many other sources, and convert it into liquid fuels and organic chemical raw materials.
Today, news of that achievement was re-published, as follows:
"23 Nov 2009: Researchers Develop Machine To Recycle Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel
U.S. researchers have demonstrated a technology that uses the sun’s heat to convert carbon dioxide and water into the building blocks of traditional fuels, a reverse combustion process that may emerge as a practical alternative to sequestration of CO2 emissions from power plants. The prototype “Sunshine to Petrol” system, developed by Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, uses concentrated solar energy to trigger a thermo-chemical reaction in an iron-rich composite located inside a two-sided cylindrical chamber. The iron oxide is designed to lose an oxygen molecule when exposed to 1,500 degree C heat, and then retrieve an oxygen molecule when it is cooled down, essentially converting an incoming supply of CO2 into an outgoing stream of carbon monoxide. Additionally, when researchers pump water into the chamber rather than CO2, the machine produces hydrogen. Combining those retrieved gases — hydrogen and carbon monoxide — they are able to create syngas, which can be used as a fuel. While researchers say the technology likely will not be ready for market for 15 to 20 years, it could one day become a practical way to recycle CO2. “It’s a productive utilization of CO2 that you might capture from a coal plant, a brewery, and similar concentrated sources,” said James Miller, a Sandia chemical engineer."
Well, "ready for market for 15 to 20 years" might not sound all that encouraging. But, how soon might it be "ready" if just one-tenth of the money that will be wasted through Cap&Trade regulations, or worse than squandered through geologic sequestration to help Big Oil scrounge more of the stuff he extorts us with out of the ground, were dedicated instead to developing this new carbon dioxide recycling technology - a technology that would not only free our coal industries from unproductive costs, but help free all of us from the vast and counter-productive wastes of buying OPEC petroleum and defending the lavish lifestyles of tyrannical, unfriendly OPEC regimes?
Moreover, what isn't emphasized perhaps as much as it should be in this release from Yale, except in the phrase" "uses the sun’s heat to convert carbon dioxide", is the fact that Sandia's CO2 recycling technology is conceptualized and designed to operate on environmental energy. They specify solar thermal and photovoltaic power in their concepts, but hydroelectric and wind power, as well, might find genuinely practical use in such an application.
And, finally, why do we have to learn about these developments in a news organ published by a bastion of liberal learning, whom we seriously doubt we could call a "Friend of Coal" without being laughed at or publicly stoned by them, and not in the Coal Country news media?