As we have amply documented, Penn State University has developed "tri-reforming" technology which enables us to convert, through reactions with the gas, Methane, the valuable Carbon Dioxide by-product of our coal-use industries into liquid fuels and chemicals.
With the attached and enclosed document, which, if you open and examine it, you will discover to be more than three decades old, we confirm that the needed Methane can, itself, be synthesized from Carbon Dioxide.
As reported to the United States Department of Defense by one of their major contractors, with advance regrets for the stridency of our comments and questions, which follow our excerpts from:
"KINETICS OF CARBON DIOXIDE METHANATION ON A RUTHENIUM CATALYST
Peter J. Lunde and Frank L. Kester
Hamilton Standard Division,
United Aircraft Corporation
Windsor Locks, Connecticut, 06096
United Aircraft Corporation
Windsor Locks, Connecticut, 06096
INTRODUCTION
The catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methane is often called the Sabatier reaction, after the Belgian chemist who investigated the hydrogenation of hydrocarbons using a nickel catalyst. The Sabatier reaction is becoming of commercial interest for the manufacture of natural gas from the products of coal gasification. The reverse reaction, of course, is called steam reformation and is a commercial method for hydrogen manufacture.
This paper developed from work performed under contract to NASA to investigate the Sabatier reaction as a step in reclaiming oxygen within closed cycle life support systems. Carbon dioxide from the cabin atmosphere is thus changed into water vapor which is electrolyzed to provide oxygen for the cabin plus one-half the hydrogen required for the Sabatier reaction. The rest of the hydrogen is provided from the electrolysis of stored water, which produces breathing oxygen as a by-product, reducing the proportion of available carbon dioxide which must be reacted and assuring excess carbon dioxide in the feed mixture.
The Sabatier reaction is a reversible, highly exothermic reaction which proceeds at a useful rate at the low temperatures required for high yields only when a catalyst is used. Dew, White, and Sliepcevitch (1)studied this reaction using a nickel catalyst. This paper examines the kinetics of the reaction using a Ruthenium catalyst ... .
(Note: As we have earlier reported, a portion of the CO2 recycling process is exothermic, and, if the heat generated were to be harnessed, it could, in part, be self-sustaining, with resultant economies. - JtM)
... Thompson (3) conducted a Sabatier catalyst screening program for the US Air Force.
Ruthenium and nickel were found to be appreciably more active catalysts for promoting the Sabatier reaction. Nickel, however, presented several operating problems.
Ruthenium had ... (no problems as with nickel) ... and was somewhat more active than the nickel as a catalyst. Furthermore, there was a potential for even more activity if heavier loadings of the metal on the substrate are used.
Consequently a 0.5% ruthenium catalyst on 118 in x 118 cylindrical alumina pellets was selected for further investigation. The prepared catalyst, Englehard type “E”, was purchased from
Englehard Industries Division
Englehard Minerals and Chemicals Corp.
113 Aster Street
Newark, N. J.
Englehard Minerals and Chemicals Corp.
113 Aster Street
Newark, N. J.
(So, at least one of the critical components of the process is already commercially available. - JtM)
Feed flow ratios ... were investigated. Temperatures ... were ... low enough to allow virtually complete conversion of the feed in a practical reactor.
(The "feed" - Carbon Dioxide - underwent "virtually complete conversion" into Methane. - JtM)
Complete raw data is given in Reference 5, which is the NASA report of this work.
(Might be nice to have a copy of "the NASA report of this work". - JtM)
References (Selected - JtM)
1. Dew, J. M., White, R. R. and Sliepcevitch, C. M. "Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide on Nickel ...". IEC V 47, _1, Jan. 1955
2. Wagman, D. D., et a1 "Heats, Free Energies, and Equilibrium Constants of Some Reactions involving 02, H2, H20, C, CO, CO2, and CH4". Research Paper Rp 1634, J. Res. Nat. Bu. of Std., V 34, Feb. 1945, p. 143-161.
3. Thompson, Edward B. Jr. Technical Documentary Report No. FDLTDR-64-22; "Investigations of Catalytic Reactions for CO2 Reduction". Parts I -V, 1964 -67. Published by: Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory; Research and Technology Division; Air Force Systems Command; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
5. Baum, R. A., Kester, F. L. and Lunde', P. J. "Computerized Analytical Technique for Design and Analysis of a Sabatier Reactor Subsystem", Hamilton Standard report No. SVHSER 5082, (1970), prepared on NASA contract 9-9844. Available through Nat. Tech. Service Publications. Document No. 71-26295."
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Note the references: Carbon Dioxide recycling technical data from 1945, 1955, 1967, and 1970.
And: Our US Air Force developed Carbon recycling technology for years, as in "Investigations of Catalytic Reactions for CO2 Reduction". Parts I -V, 1964 -67".
Why haven't we US citizens, especially we US citizens of US Coal Country, who paid the taxes that paid for this research, been informed of any of it?
Why have we not been told that coal can be converted, on a practical, well-established basis, into the liquid fuels we've been, over the course of decades, extorted for the supply of?
Why have we not been told that the most publicly objectionable by-product of our coal use, Carbon Dioxide, can itself be recycled into even more of those liquid fuels?