Our header, "Coal Reduces CO2", is related to some of our earlier dispatches, and some to follow, wherein we explained that "reducing" Carbon Dioxide, in the truly technical, chemical sense, means changing it's molecular structure, and the electrical charges of the atoms which compose it, so that the elemental constituents of the relatively inert CO2, Carbon and Oxygen, would become "available" for chemical reaction with other elements, and that Carbon Dioxide could subsequently be broken down, or incorporated into other chemical compounds.
Only coincidentally does such chemical reduction lead, through resulting chemical reactions, to an actual physical reduction in the amount of CO2.
We also earlier documented that Carbon Dioxide could be chemically reduced to the more reactive Carbon Monoxide, which is very amenable to further reactions and conversion into useful hydrocarbons, by the simple expedient of passing Carbon Dioxide, in the relative absence of Oxygen, over red-hot Coal.
The enclosed United States Patent confirms and more fully explains that process, and does so in the context of describing a technology whereby Coal and Carbon Dioxide can be combined and reacted synergistically together, along with Steam, in order to produce a gas mixture from which the immensely valuable liquid fuel, Methanol, can be catalytically condensed.
Explanatory comment follows brief excerpts from:
"United States Patent 2,383,715 - Production of Gas Mixtures for Methanol
Date: August, 1945
Inventor: Frederick W. de Jahn, NY
Abstract: Methanol is produced by passing a gas mixture comprising 1 volume of carbon monoxide and 2 volumes of hydrogen ... over a proper catalyst. (Such a) gas mixture can be made directly at relatively low cost by decomposing a proper hydrocarbon mixture with steam and finally adjusting the mixture by passing it through a bed of incandescent carbon.
Claims: A process of producing a (gas) mixture ... for use in making synthetic methanol which comprises decomposing a hydrocarbon not having substantially more than three molecules of carbon for each 6 molecules of hydrogen with an excess of steam under conditions adapted to produce a substantial proportion of CO2 ... (then) passing such gas mixture through a bed of incandescent carbon to convert CO2 to CO while adding steam ... ."
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Now, if you're missing the point, the process deliberately makes Carbon Dioxide so that it can be mixed with Steam and then passed through "a bed of incandescent carbon" (i.e., red-hot Coal) in order to make a gas mixture suitable for the catalytic synthesis of Methanol.
The inventor specifies Propane as his hydrocarbon of choice, from which he initially, and deliberately, makes Carbon Dioxide.