Swiss Low-Energy CO2 Recycling

January 14, 2010

Methanation and photo-methanation of carbon dioxide at room temperature and atmospheric pressure

Herein, from Switzerland, following on our reports of Swiss and Israeli collaboration in the technology of Carbon Dioxide recycling, we have even further confirmation that energy, and thus cost, barriers to the reclaiming of Carbon Dioxide, and it's conversion into valuable liquid fuels and chemicals, can be overcome.

We submit this as "foreign" confirmation of the evidence attesting to that fact which has been published, as we've documented, by Penn State University, the United States Department of Defense and the United States Department of Energy, and others, since prophets, it seems, do have no honor in their own land.

Excerpt as follows:

"Methanation and photo-methanation of carbon dioxide at room temperature and atmospheric pressure

K. Ravindranathan Thampi, John Kiwi & Michael Grätzel

Institut de Chimie Physique, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérate, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

The Sabatier reaction: CO2+4H2 CH4+2H2O ... is an important catalytic process of wide industrial and academic interest. It is applied to syngas conversion and the treatment of waste streams. Methane is one of the most important carbon resources of the world, serving as an energy vector as well as a feedstock for higher-value chemicals. Despite its favourable thermodynamics, the eight-electron reduction of CO2 to CH4 by hydrogen is difficult to achieve: high-energy intermediates impose large kinetic barriers, and the formation of side products is common. Intensive investigations during the past decade have therefore been aimed at improving the activity and selectivity of methanation catalysts. Although significant progress has been made in this field, elevated temperatures and pressures are still required for methane generation to proceed at significant rates and yields. Here we report the selective conversion of CO2 to methane at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, using highly dispersed Ru/RuO loaded onto TiO2 as a catalyst. The reaction rate is sharply enhanced through photo-excitation of the support material."

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We're not including the authors' extensive list of supporting documentation. And, their presentation of the Sabatier reaction seems, to us, an oversimplification. But, you should get the picture: CO2 is a raw material resource, not a pollutant.

Interestingly, as we will shortly document for you, even though these Swiss researchers refer to Methane as "one of the most important carbon resources of the world", a great deal of international effort is being applied to convince people otherwise, and to make Methane appear as just another "greenhouse gas", similar to Carbon Dioxide, that must somehow be disposed of.

We'll comment further on that situation in a pending dispatch. But, herein, we have documented yet again that the science for recycling Carbon Dioxide, like the science for liquefying Coal, is quite real and undergoing continuous improvement in various places throughout the world.

It's far past time we started reducing those sciences to commercial practice in US Coal Country.