United States Patent: 4197421
We have previously cited the US Department of Energy scientist, Meyer Steinberg, at the DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, in New York.
Herein, it's seen that, three decades ago, Steinberg, and our own United States Government, developed and patented a technology that would enable us to both capture and recycle atmospheric Carbon Dioxide.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 4,197,421 - Synthetic Carbonaceous Fuels and Feedstocks
Date: April, 1980
Inventor: Meyer Steinberg, NY
Assignee: The United States of America
Abstract: This invention relates to the use of a three compartment electrolytic cell in the production of synthetic carbonaceous fuels and chemical feedstocks such as gasoline, methane and methanol by electrolyzing an aqueous sodium carbonate/bicarbonate solution, obtained from scrubbing atmospheric carbon dioxide with an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution, whereby the hydrogen generated at the cathode and the carbon dioxide liberated in the center compartment are combined thermocatalytically into methanol and gasoline blends. The oxygen generated at the anode is preferably vented into the atmosphere, and the regenerated sodium hydroxide produced at the cathode is reused for scrubbing the CO2 from the atmosphere.
Background: This invention was made under, or during, the course of, a contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.
Description: This invention relates to a process for producing synthetic fuels and chemical feedstocks such as gasoline, methane and methanol from gaseous CO2 and H2 by extracting CO2 from the air with a NaOH solution; subjecting the resulting sodium carbonate solution to electrolysis in a three compartment electrolytic cell where hydrogen is formed at the cathode, oxygen at the anode and CO2 is released in the center compartment; and combining the hydrogen and the CO2 thermocatalytically to form gasoline.
Raw synthesis gas containing hydrogen and carbon oxide and/or carbon dioxide useful in the synthesis of methanol, methane, and gasoline are normally obtained from the conversion of coal and other hydrocarbons by a variety of known methods."
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So, by extracting CO2 from the atmosphere, using a solution of lye in water, a technology Coal-use industries are in some cases being compelled to install on their chimneys, we can generate an aqueous solution that can be then be electrolyzed to release both CO2 and H2, which, combined, make a syngas, which can then be used to synthesize "methanol, methane, and gasoline" that "are normally obtained from the conversion of coal".
Let us repeat the US Government-certified words, written by the USDOE and approved of by the US Patent Office: "methanol ... and gasoline ... are normally obtained from the conversion of coal".
Not yet, maybe. But, they could be and they should be.
And, as we have elsewhere documented to be feasible: A properly-designed and specified Coal-to-Liquid fuel manufacturing facility can be built which could utilize the end products of multiple Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies, as a supplemental raw material along with Coal, and/or with intermediate products, like synthesis gas, produced from Coal.
Moreover, we remind you, this Brookhaven Lab technology could go hand-in-hand with other Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies proposed and developed, as documented in our reports, by Rich Diver, and others, at the USDOE's Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, wherein it has been posited to harness environmental energies, such as Solar and Wind, to generate whatever power is needed to effect the capture of Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere.
We'll note that the USDOE and the US Department of Defense operate in close concert, and the technology as explained herein might be part of the DOD's effort, which we have documented, to manufacture fuels from Carbon Dioxide; and, which have led, as recorded in the West Virginia Coal Association R&D archives, to patents held by USDOD corporate proxies, such as United Technologies and Hamilton Standard, for such Carbon Dioxide-to-Liquid Fuel production technologies.
One passage excerpted from the full text of Steinberg's patent might confirm that conjecture, as in:
"The applications of this process can be very broad. For example, this process can be used in the production of synthetic fuels at sea aboard nuclear aircraft carriers using nuclear power, air and sea water. This jet fuel can be utilized by aircraft."
So, if this CO2 recycling can be done even at sea, our vital Coal-use industries do not have to be burdened with the costs for on-site construction of CO2 collection facilities, or for the endless miles of pipeline needed to ship CO2 to the West Texas oil fields.
Nor do they have to be crippled by the on-going energy expense of CO2 smokestack capture, compression and transport, which, as we have documented, are projected to require a significant portion of a power plant's energy output.
This particular "truth" has been "out there", in upstate New York and Washington, DC, for just a shade more than 30 years, now.
When, do you suppose, word of it will reach the Ohio Valley, and the rest of United States Coal Country?