http://www.uop.com/pr/releases/DOE%20Hopewell%20Grant%20PR%20-%20FINAL.pdf
We have, in our posts to the WV Coal Association, previously documented the carbon conversion expertise of UOP-Honeywell Corporation; the use of algae to capture Carbon Dioxide emissions; the conversion of oil derived from algae into jet fuel; and, multiple test flights made by airliners using such algae-based jet fuel.
Although, subsequent to other of our research, we tend now to favor technologies that directly, chemically capture and convert effluent Carbon Dioxide into both Methane and, via subsequent reforming with the Methane so produced, higher hydrocarbons; it's important, we think, to emphasize that multiple options do exist to make productive, profitable use of Coal's valuable CO2 by-product.
We don't have to ship it all off to a West Texas oil field rat hole.
Via the enclosed link and following excerpt, Honeywell explains that Carbon Dioxide can be reclaimed using cultivated algae, with valuable products thereby derived.
Brief comment follows:
"Honeywell's UOP Awarded Funding for Carbon Dioxide Reuse Through Algae Biofuel Production
DES PLAINES, Ill., Mar. 2, 2010 – UOP, a Honeywell (NYSE: HON) company, announced today that it has been awarded a $1.5 million cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy for a project to demonstrate technology to capture carbon dioxide and produce algae for use in biofuel and energy production.
The funding will be used for the design of a demonstration system that will capture carbon dioxide from exhaust stacks at Honeywell’s manufacturing facility in Hopewell, Va., and deliver the captured CO2 to a cultivation system for algae.
Algal oil can then be extracted from the algae for conversion to biofuels, and the algae residual can be converted to pyrolysis oil, which can be burned to generate renewable electricity.
The project, managed by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory, will realize further environmental benefit because wastewater from the manufacturing facility will be used in the algae cultivation system, allowing the algae to consume nitrogen in the wastewater.
At the demonstration site, UOP will design cost-effective and efficient equipment to capture CO2 from the exhaust stacks of the Hopewell caprolactam facility and deliver it in a controlled and efficient process to a pond near the plant, where algae will be grown using automated control systems from Honeywell Process Solutions and technology developed by Aquaflow Bionomic Corp.
This project supports ongoing development efforts from Honeywell’s UOP for a range of process technologies to capture carbon dioxide and produce green fuels and chemicals. UOP has already commercialized the UOP/Eni Ecofining (TM) process to produce Honeywell Green Diesel (TM) fuel from biological feedstocks, including algae and demonstrated process technology to produce Honeywell Green Jet (TM) fuel.
The project will also support the independent evaluation of the use of RTP(R) rapid thermal processing technology from Envergent Technologies, a joint venture between UOP and Ensyn Corp. The RTP system can be used to convert waste biomass from the algae production into pyrolysis oil, which can be burned to generate renewable electricity.
Honeywell’s Hopewell site produces caprolactam, a material used in the production of nylon, as well as ammonium sulfate, a fertilizer."
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First, the Algae will likely not only use the "nitrogen in the wastewater", but will also benefit from the "waste" heat; another by-product of Coal-fired power plants.
But, we can, it seems clear, recycle effluent Carbon Dioxide, using algae, into diesel and jet fuels; and, likely, a plastics, "nylon", raw material and fertilizer, as we've earlier documented to be feasible, as well.
And, "pyrolysis oil" can not only "be burned to generate renewable electricity", if you recall some our earlier reports, it, too, can be processed into more familiar forms of liquid transportation fuels, and other products.
Why are such productive options, for the profitable use of Carbon Dioxide, not now the focus of public debate and discourse, and the targets of public policy, instead of Coal-crippling scams like Cap&Trade and Geologic Sequestration?
Does anyone have an answer to that question? A good answer?
