We've documented that the US Department of Defense, through proxies, holds patents on the recycling of Carbon Dioxide, as is emitted from coal-use industry in a small way compared to natural sources such as volcanism and seasonal vegetative rot, into liquid fuels.
We have, it seems, discovered a part of the trail leading up to those patented culminations of Carbon Dioxide recycling technology development.
Comment follows:
"Title: Development of an improved Sabatier reactor
Author: Birbara, P.J.; Sribnik, F
Date: January 1979; OSTI ID: 5087687;
Resource: Journal Am. Soc. Mech. Eng.; (United States); Journal Volume: 79-ENAS-36; Conference: 9. ASME intersociety conference on environmental systems, San Francisco, CA, USA, 16 Jul 1979
Research Organization: United Technologies Corp., Hamilton Standard Division
Abstract: This paper presents the results of recent experimental and analytical studies of a Sabatier reactor where carbon dioxide and hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst react to form water, methane, and heat. The work undertaken in this program was aimed at simplification of design and control concepts of Sabatier subsystems. To this end, effort was expended to the development of UASC-151G, a highly active, physically durable catalyst composed of ruthenium on alumina. UASC-151G is five times as active as that supplied for the SSP program. The use of this improved catalyst has very significant effects on the Sabatier reaction subsystem design including: (1) lower temperature starting capability, (2) simplification of active control and instrumentation requirements, (3) simplified reactor design, (4) improved reliability, and (5) high conversion efficiencies using only small amounts of catalyst. Reasonable agreement between test and computer simulation has been obtained for temperature and lean component conversion efficiencies for both steady-state and cyclic operation."
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We must note, if any of our readers are not familiar with the company "United Technologies", that they are a very major aerospace and technical contractor for the United States Department of Defense.
So, we are forced to presume that, more than thirty years ago, an agency of the United States Government, through at least one of it's major contractors, knew that Carbon Dioxide could be converted into methane, which, as detailed in the reports of Penn State University's "Tri-reforming Process" we have thoroughly documented, can be combined with even more Carbon Dioxide to make liquid fuels.