Process for converting gaseous hydrocarbons
We some time ago reported that a United States Patent had been issued, in 1933, to German inventors for demonstrating that Methane could be converted into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
Herein, we report that, six years later, in 1939, an American petroleum company went Germany one better by demonstrating that, not only could Methane be converted into liquid hydrocarbon fuels, but, the conversion could be accomplished by combining the Methane with Carbon Dioxide.
And, it could be even better than that, as we point out following the excerpts from what we believe to be an early version of the "bi-reforming" and "tri-reforming" CO2-CH4 reaction technologies explained and described more recently, as we've been reporting, by Penn State University, and others:
"United States Patent 2,180,672 - Process for Converting Gaseous Hydrocarbons
November, 1939
Inventor: Frederick Frey, Oklahoma
Assignee: Phillips Petroleum, Oklahoma
This invention relates to processes for the conversion of normally gaseous hydrocarbons into organic products of higher molecular weight and more specifically to the conversion of methane and higher gaseous hydrocarbons together with oxides of carbon into such organic products with aid of solid catalytic agents.
An object of the present invention is the production of hydrocarbons suitable for motor fuel ... from gaseous hydrocarbons of lower molecular weight by reacting them with oxides of carbon ... .
Combustion products, producer gas, carbon dioxide, monoxide or their mixtures may be mixed directly with the gaseous hydrocarbons.
For conversion in the process hydrocarbon gases predominating in methane are suitable ... ."
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So, ideally, we could have two smoke stacks coming off a Coal-fired electric generator. One could lead, first, to a 1912 Nobel-winning Sabatier reactor, as being further refined today by NASA, where it's Carbon Dioxide could be converted into Methane. That Methane could then be blended with the "Combustion products (and) carbon dioxide" coming from the second smoke stack, and, using Phillips Petroleum's 1939 technology, converted into "hydrocarbons suitable for motor fuel".
