We submit the enclosed United States Patent, for yet another method to recycle Carbon Dioxide into useful and valuable products, with some cautionary foreword.
We have, as yet, been unable to identify what, if any, the institutional or corporate affiliations of the inventor, Rollin Swanson, might be.
However, we elected to present this technology since it's validity was, and is, herein confirmed by supposedly expert United States patent examiners; and, because the description of the technology's action and implementation is congruent with other examples of similar technology for the recycling of Carbon Dioxide, which we have, from incontrovertible sources, previously documented for you.
Additional comment follows excerpts from:
"Conversion of water and carbon dioxide to low cost energy, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, oxygen and hydrocarbons - United States Patent 5516742
Date: May 1996
Inventor: Rollin C. Swanson, NY
Abstract: The present invention is a novel process for producing low cost energy, hydrogen, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and oxygen by reacting carbon dioxide and water over a catalyst complex to form low cost energy, various weight hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and hydrogen which may be used as fuels or for other purposes. The low cost energy results from the heat generated by the exothermic nature of the reaction and is evidenced by the increased temperature of the reactor during the reaction. Said catalyst complex is made from a hydrated magnesium carbonate/hydroxide complex and a catalyst support. The reactants are carbon dioxide and water. This reaction is intended to be used at sites where excess steam, heat or carbon dioxide are produced and are readily available. The recycle of these otherwise excess "waste" products can be economically advantageous by producing useful products and be environmentally advantageous by reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and thermal exhaust.
Moreover, if desired, a fuel may be added to the process, e.g., coal, to further the production of organics.
Claims: A catalyst produced by a method comprising the steps of mixing a magnesium carbonate/hydroxide complex, carbon dioxide and water at 200 to 780 psig and 0 to 4 C for at least one hour, mounting said mixture on a catalyst support, and drying said catalyst. ... A catalyst according to claim 1 wherein calcium carbonate is mixed with the magnesium carbonate/hydroxide complex. ... wherein the catalyst support is coal.
Description and Background: This invention presents a novel way of producing energy and hydrocarbons inexpensively. The reactants in this method are carbon dioxide and water, which are reacted over a novel catalyst complex comprised of a magnesium hydroxide/carbonate complex to form low cost energy, hydrogen, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and oxygen which may be used as fuels and/or other useful products.
Summary: The present invention is a novel process for producing low cost energy, hydrogen, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and oxygen by reacting carbon dioxide and water over a catalyst complex. Said catalyst complex is formed from a magnesium hydroxide/carbonate complex, and preferably, a catalyst support. The reactants are carbon dioxide and water.
The present invention comprises the reaction of carbon dioxide and water over a catalyst to form low cost energy, hydrogen, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and oxygen which may be used as fuels or for other purposes. The low cost energy results from the heat generated by the exothermic nature of the reaction and is evidenced by the increases temperature of the reactor during the reaction. CO2 is used to maintain the catalyst's composition.
This reaction is intended to be used at sites where excess steam, heat or carbon dioxide are produced and are readily available. The recycle of these otherwise excess "waste" products can be economically advantageous by producing useful products and be environmentally advantageous by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, if desired, a fuel may be added to the process, e.g., coal, to further the production of organics. Another advantage of the present invention is that since other fuels will react at the reaction conditions, the feed streams may be "dirty", that is the feed may contain other emissions. For example, the stream may contain sulfur compounds, nitrogen compounds, and carbon monoxide (CO), all of which will react over the catalyst complex."
----------
Note, first, that the catalyst support is specified to be, preferably, Coal; which, as we have earlier documented, and as again affirmed herein, as in "a fuel may be added to the process, e.g., coal, to further the production of organics", can be used as a supplement in Carbon Dioxide conversion and reforming reactions.
Second, this invention, for the synthesis of, among other things, "hydrocarbons", is suggested to be used "at sites where excess steam, heat or carbon dioxide are produced"; a suggestion which obviously points to coal-fired power plants, and, which echoes similar suggestions made by scientists at both the Brookhaven and Sandia National Laboratories, as we have, and will further, document.
Moreover, the products generated include "low cost ... hydrogen (and) carbon monoxide", which, we submit, is basic synthesis gas, "syngas", which could then be processed over appropriate Fischer-Tropsch, and related, catalysts to condense that syngas into liquid hydrocarbons.
In any case, it is herein confirmed, by a yet another branch of our own United States Government, the US Patent Office, that Carbon Dioxide, as arises in a small way, relative to natural sources of emission, such as volcanoes and seasonal vegetative rot, from our varied and productive uses of Coal, is a raw material resource of potentially great value.
We can reclaim it at it's sources of emission and convert it back into energy products.