We have been documenting the fact that Carbon Dioxide, rather than being an intractable pollutant, an obnoxious gas that we must punish our coal industries for producing, is, instead, a valuable raw material resource from which we can manufacture liquid fuels and useful industrial chemicals.
Toward that end, we have lately been reporting on the "Tri-reforming" process, as described by multiple sources, but most thoroughly by Penn State University, wherein Carbon Dioxide can be reacted with Methane to synthesize valuable and versatile liquid fuels and chemical manufacturing raw materials.
We have documented that Methane, needed for the reforming of CO2 into liquid fuels, can itself be manufactured from CO2, and from coal.
However, much as the true, "raw material", nature of Carbon Dioxide has, we would contend deliberately, been obscured, and CO2 itself demonized, we have discovered that the valuable Methane, too, has been subjected to some concerted effort to make it also appear as a pollutant that must be collected and somehow disposed of, rather than as a resource which could, and should, be used to it's fullest potential as a co-reactant for CO2 in the manufacture of liquid hydrocarbons.
As evidence, we enclose two links, the one above and another below, and two excerpts following, which detail the International "Methane to Markets Partnership".
They describe themselves as follows:
"The Methane to Markets Partnership is an international initiative that advances cost-effective, near-term methane recovery and use as a clean energy source. The goal of the Partnership is to reduce global methane emissions in order to enhance economic growth, strengthen energy security, improve air quality, improve industrial safety, and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases."
Note that they define Methane, not as a valuable hydrocarbon raw material, but, more as an "emission" - a "greenhouse" pollutant. And, even though they acknowledge Methane to be "a clean energy source", their goal is "to reduce global methane emissions in order to enhance economic growth".
In the extensive body of their web site, they do talk about using Methane in it's traditional role as "natural gas", but only in a limited way. It is mostly an exposition about the policies and arts of collecting Methane, from it's many sources, and it's disposal.
We have been unable to find even one mention, in this multinational effort, of Methane's potentials for use as an industrial chemical manufacturing raw material; or as a starting point for methanol manufacture; or, for it's potential as a co-reactant, with Carbon Dioxide, to make liquid fuels, the details of which we have thoroughly documented.
There are more than thirty listed members of the "Partnership", including the United States and, among the others, Canada, China, Germany and Russia.
Significantly, we find no OPEC members, that we recognize, on their roster.
Perhaps more significantly, the United States is represented in the Partnership not by the Department of Energy, but by the EPA, as follows:
"The Methane to Markets Partnership is an international initiative that advances cost-effective, near-term methane recovery and use as a clean energy source. The goal of the Partnership is to reduce global methane emissions in order to enhance economic growth, strengthen energy security, improve air quality, improve industrial safety, and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases."
Methane is a greenhouse gas pollutant only when it arises from uncontrolled sources, such as the Arctic tundra in the summer, the Everglades Swamp and the Oklahoma feed lots of cattle headed for slaughter. Otherwise, it's a useful byproduct of industrial processes. At some sites, for instance, Methane emitted by coke ovens, driven off the coal being coked, was reclaimed and used as supplemental fuel in nearby steel furnaces.
Anyone who grew up, back in the day, in West Virginia, before electric stoves became prevalent, and brewed some coffee or heated some beans, likely did so with the kind assistance of the Methane in natural gas.
And, we now know, as we've documented thoroughly, and will document further: Methane can be reacted with Carbon Dioxide to synthesize liquid fuels.
This "Partnership" is, we are compelled to suspect, yet more deliberate misdirection; a deception intended to deny us access to one of the valuable raw material resources available to us, including coal and CO2, which, if properly utilized, could enable the United States of America to achieve domestic liquid fuel self-sufficiency.
The "Markets" this organization wants to direct Methane into, are not, via technologies such as Penn State Tri-reforming with Carbon Dioxide, our local filling stations.
Why?
