http://www.netl.doe.gov/kmd/cds/disk28/NGP4.PDF
We've been trying to put the enclosed report, available through the above link or attached document, into some sort of positive perspective for ourselves.
But, it's difficult.
Herein, it's documented that our USDOE has put considerable effort into the reforming of Methane with Carbon Dioxide to synthesize the valuable liquid fuel, and gasoline and plastics raw material, Methanol.
They did not, however, use Carbon Dioxide generated by a Coal use facility; nor, did they employ Methane synthesized either from Coal, via a gasification process; or, from Carbon Dioxide, via Sabatier recycling.
They used, in this development, the relatively minor combined emissions of CO2 and Methane arising from landfills.
Compounding the insult to Coal, this research contract was supervised by, and the results reported to, the DOE's National Energy Technology lab in Morgantown, WV, next door to WVU.
Some brief excerpts, with comment appended:
"Landfill Gas Conversion to a Methane-Carbon Dioxide Reformer Feedstock for Methanol Synthesis
W. Jeffrey Cook, et. al.; Acrion Technologies, Inc.; Cleveland, Ohio 44125
Introduction
Landfill gas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide generated by the anaerobic decomposition of municipal solid waste, is a natural resource in many ways similar to low quality natural gas.
A major barrier to widespread utilization of landfill gas (LFG) for energy and merchant carbon dioxide is reliable, economic removal of contaminants from the raw gas. Landfill gas contaminants challenge separation technology several ways: 1) potential contaminants include literally hundreds of chemical compounds, among them toxic species such as vinyl chloride and hydrogen sulfide, 2) each landfill has a unique contaminant lineup, and 3) the contaminant lineup changes throughout the landfill’s gas production life.
Acrion has developed technology to remove contaminants from LFG with in-situ cold liquid carbon dioxide obtained directly from LFG. (The technique uses conditions distant from the widely publicized component extraction with supercritical carbon dioxide.) A stream of contaminant-free methane and carbon dioxide is produced as feedstock for methanol synthesis; with further processing to separate carbon dioxide, pipeline methane and liquid carbon dioxide are produced.
... CO2 ... based on conventional chemical engineering ... (enables) production of a variety of fuels and chemicals derived from methane and CO2 ... .
Objectives
The principal research objective is development of a process to recover contaminant-free reformer feedstock for methanol synthesis from raw landfill gas. Unlike currently available gas-cleaning technologies, one processing step can efficiently and simultaneously adjust the methane/carbon dioxide ratio for methanol synthesis and remove the broad and variable spectrum of trace contaminants present in raw LFG.
(Benefits)
• Immediate environmental and safety benefits
• Secondary environmental benefits derived from vehicles using clean burning methanol or oxygenated gasoline (the MTBE in reformulated gasoline is made from methanol),
• Methanol fuels produced from landfill gas can reduce net greenhouse gases; the organic fraction of municipal solid waste consumes carbon dioxide during its formation which is released during methanol combustion, a “mini carbon cycle,”
• Reliable local supplies of methanol fuel not subject to long distance transport costs, and which decrease dependence on foreign energy sources,
• Urban methanol produced from landfill gas can augment farm-belt ethanol derived from corn to help increase the supply of oxygenates for reformulated gasoline derived from renewable/recycled sources,
• Increased supplies of low cost methanol in major metropolitan areas for non-fuel uses, such as resin manufacture, which can increase job opportunities.
(And, the foregoing do not, somehow, apply to Coal-fired power plant CO2 emissions, and Methane which can be synthesized from Coal or CO2? What is up with all of this?)
Acrion’s technology converts LFG to a high pressure mixture of contaminant-free methane and carbon dioxide for methanol synthesis feedstock. The LFG recovery process, for the most part conventional compression, cooling and condensation, relies on the excellent solvent properties of cold liquid carbon dioxide to remove contaminants. The absorber temperature and pressure are selected to provide a product gas containing methane and carbon dioxide in the desired ratio for reforming to methanol synthesis gas ... .
The operation of an absorption column demonstrating the effectiveness of in-situ liquid carbon dioxide absorbent in removing trace contaminants was a success. Phase I efforts confirm the technical and economic viability of Acrion's proposed LFG to methanol process. A process simulation based on experimental results clearly shows commercialization potential. Process economics are attractive ... .
Contract Information
Research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Morgantown Energy Technology Center, under Contract DE-FG02-94ER81690."
----------
So, "process economics are attractive" for producing the valuable liquid fuel, Methanol, from the dilute, dispersed emissions of Methane and Carbon Dioxide drifting up out of landfills. But, they are, somehow, not attractive for collecting more concentrated CO2 at Coal-fired power plants and combining it with Methane produced in industrial quantities from CO2, or Coal, using waste power plant heat to drive the processes, to synthesize Methanol?
Maybe so. Actually, the use of landfill gas illustrates and supports one of our theses, which is well-supported by documented research we've presented: Carbon Dioxide can be removed effectively and efficiently from the atmosphere itself, using technologies driven by locally-available environmental energy.
Those same energies can be employed to convert some of the CO2, via Sabatier processing, into Methane; and, then used to synthesize Methanol from the combined CO2 and Methane.
Or, we could just harness a Coal-fired power plant's waste heat, which some folks complain about anyway, to drive the processes.
The best light we can put on all of this almost unbelievable obfuscation and misdirection, is that the research effort described herein is a pioneer-type project, with results that will, eventually, be further developed and used to benefit our Coal-use industries, and, our Nation.
We hope that to be true. What we have begun to suspect, though, sadly, is something entirely different.