https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_1866_259_0_43/http%3B/exps3.inl.gov%3B7087/publishedcontent/pub.
We have previously reported on the USDOE's various Carbon Dioxide conversion technology developments at several of their National Laboratories.
Herein, from the Idaho National Laboratory, "INL", we submit a news release on further development of their "Syntrolysis" technology, wherein Carbon Dioxide is combined with Hydrogen electrolyzed from water to synthesize liquid hydrocarbons.
Up front, we confess that INL, as does the US Department of Defense, in technologies patented by their corporate proxies, for similar CO2-recycling technology, which we have reported to the West Virginia Coal Association, specifies nuclear power as a Carbon-neutral source of the needed energy.
We favor using waste heat from Coal-fired power stations; or, as does Sandia National Laboratory, and others, as we've documented, environmentally-derived energy, such as solar or hydro.
In any case, this work from Idaho, from our own USDOE, is just further confirmation that Carbon Dioxide, as arises in a small way relative to natural sources of emission, such as volcanoes and seasonal vegetative rot, from our productive use of Coal, contrary to the propaganda from the duplicitous promoters of both Cap & Trade taxation and of Geologic Sequestration oil industry subsidization, is a valuable raw material resource that can be productively recycled into needed hydrocarbons.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"Syntrolysis: Simultaneously electrolyzing water and carbon-dioxide into Syngas
Two global energy priorities today are finding environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil fuels, and reducing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
Idaho National Laboratory researchers have invented a technology that can do both.
INL’s Syngas Generation from Co-Electrolysis uses high-temperature nuclear reactor technology and solid-oxide fuel cell technology to recycle carbon dioxide and water into Syngas, the feedstock for synthetic hydrocarbon fuel production.
This breakthrough technology also is called Syntrolysis, which is a patent-pending process that leverages nuclear-powered high-temperature electrolysis at 750-950C in a solid-oxide electrolysis cell to convert water and carbon dioxide into synthesis gas.
“Using the well-understood Fischer-Tropsch process, Syngas can subsequently be converted into synthetic hydrocarbon fuels,” said INL nuclear engineer Steve Herring. “Alternatively, Syntrolysis can produce hydrogen for use in fuel processing or for the hydrogen highway of the future.”
Unlike current fuel-producing processes, Syntrolysis uses carbon dioxide from a variety of sources, including: coal-burning power plant exhaust, biomass, and agricultural waste. This carbon dioxide is converted to carbon monoxide, then combined with hydrogen extracted from water to produce Syngas. From Syngas, synthetically derived hydrocarbon fuels and products can be made.
“We have demonstrated the feasibility of the Syntrolysis process for producing hydrogen and carbon monoxide, or Syngas, here in the laboratory over thousands of hours of testing,” said INL research engineer Jim O’Brien. “We believe this is an improvement over other processes for producing Syngas because it can be based on noncarbon sources of electricity and processes such as nuclear. We also have demonstrated that overall process could be carbon-neutral, if the feedstock for the CO2 is, for example, based on biomass. By combining carbon-free electricity and heat sources, Syntrolysis essentially recycles carbon material from many sources, avoids consuming nonrenewable energy, produces no sulfur, delivers a scalable process, and creates the potential for greater energy independence in the near term.”
For hydrogen production, the solid-oxide electrolysis cell has conducting electrodes on either side of the electrolyte that produce hydrogen from steam on the cathode side of the electrolyte, while oxygen ions are transported through the solid-state electrolyte to the anode side, producing oxygen gas. The exiting mixture, which may be 90% hydrogen, is passed through a separator to purify the hydrogen.
“Syntrolysis offers an affordable, domestic, long-term carbon recycling process that produces the feedstock for synthetic fuels and hydrogen,” said INL research engineer Carl Stoots. “This would increase America’s energy self-reliance for transportation needs and manufacturing of products, plus significantly reduce carbon emissions to the environment. It also produces valuable hydrogen for industrial and energy processes, as well as for the hydrogen highway of the future.”
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First, note mention of our - unrealistically described as "well-understood" - old Coal-to-Liquid conversion friends, Fischer and Tropsch, and consider if this Carbon Dioxide recycling scenario could be combined synergistically with an indirect Coal-to-Liquid conversion process.
Second, again, we're not fans of nuclear energy. We think it flies in the face of experience and common sense to plan on "saving" the environment by building more Three Mile Islands and Chernobyl's.
As we've documented: Solar, Hydro, Wind and Geothermal energies have been proposed by other United States and international proponents of similar Carbon Dioxide recycling technology. And, catalysts have been, and are being, developed to lessen the energy required by the various steps of the process.
Third, "the hydrogen highway of the future" is, we contend, Space Ranger-type unrealistic and dangerous nonsense. We would rather, speaking for ourselves, move to Amish Country and get a spiffy horse-drawn carriage to do our marketing and traveling in, before we would contemplate sailing at high speed down the Interstates among a fleet of mini-Hindenberg's.
But, excess Hydrogen which might be generated by this technology, if obtained via water electrolysis using electricity derived from environmental energies, could have other energy conversion uses, aside from hydrogenating Carbon Dioxide: It could, perhaps, be used to help refine, to further hydrogenate, raw carbonaceous liquids derived from a Coal liquefaction process, as in some of the oil industry patents we've reported, and will further report, detailing technology that's already been developed by Big Oil to refine Coal liquids into direct replacements for our current liquid transportation fuels.
