We remind you of our recent post to the West Virginia Coal Association, concerning: "Development of an Improved Sabatier Reactor; ASME Conference on Environmental Systems", presented by employees of the Hamilton Standard Division of United Technologies Corporation.
In that paper, the judgement of the 1912 Nobel Committee, in the award of their Prize in Chemistry to Paul Sabatier, was directly validated; as the US Government contractors who authored that paper confirmed that "carbon dioxide and hydrogen" could be reacted "in the presence of a catalyst ... to form water, methane and heat".
In other previous reports, we have documented how it has been known, since the late 1800's, that Methane could as well be synthesized, as one of several products, via the Steam gasification of Coal.
Further, and most pertinent to the purposes of this dispatch, we have also made frequent references to the more recent development, by Penn State University, notably, and others, of "bi-reforming" and "tri-reforming" technologies, wherein Carbon Dioxide can be reacted with such Methane, from whatever source, in order to synthesize higher hydrocarbons, including some, like Methanol, which can be employed as liquid fuels.
As evidence that there is little truly new concerning the technologies our nation must have, to synthesize for itself the liquid fuels it needs out of the materials it already has in hand, including such technologies for the reforming of Methane with Carbon Dioxide, we herein submit, from the early days of World War II, even more documentation of the fact that CO2, as arises in a small way, relative to natural sources of emission, such as volcanism, from our varied and productive uses of Coal, is a valuable raw material resource.
Some brief excerpts, with additional comment appended, from the enclosed link to, and attached file of:
"United States Patent 2,256,333 - Obtaining a Mixture of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen
Date: September, 1941
Inventor: William D. Wilcox, MO
Abstract: There has been for some years known and in use, a process of obtaining methanol by the synthesis of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (and) mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (can be) made to unite yielding liquid hydrocarbons suitable for use as motor spirit ... .
The gas which can be most advantageously processed either in the synthesis of methanol or the production of motor spirit will be composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen ... .
It is the purpose of the procedure disclosed in this specification, to produce a gas suitable for use in (those) syntheses, in the most efficient way from the materials which are most readily available and the most cheaply obtained.
I have already been granted US Patents Nos. 1,903,845 and 1,905,326, in which hydrocarbon gases are dissociated by heat in admixtures with steam, and the ratio of CO to hydrogen controlled ... by employing a controlled proportion of carbon dioxide in place of steam in effecting a dissociation of methane ... ."
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In other words, the composition of the synthesis gas, which can be "made to unite yielding liquid hydrocarbons suitable for use as motor spirit" and "which can be most advantageously processed either in the synthesis of methanol or the production of motor spirit", can be adjusted, and "the ratio of CO to hydrogen controlled", and the type of liquid hydrocarbon, Methanol or "motor spirit", thus produced selected or directed to a certain extent, "by employing a controlled proportion of carbon dioxide in place of" in place of some of the "steam in effecting a dissociation of methane".
Yet again: Methane can be reacted with Carbon Dioxide and Steam to yield a synthesis gas from which we can synthesize Methanol.
Methanol can be converted into Gasoline, or used in the further synthesis of plastics wherein the CO2 consumed would be permanently and, more importantly, productively sequestered.
In 1912, we learned, or should have learned, from the Nobel Committee, that we can make Methane from Carbon Dioxide.
In 1941, we learned, or should have learned, as herein, that we can react Methane with more Carbon Dioxide to synthesize both Methanol and "motor spirit".
Far, far past time the lessons finally sank home - in Coal Country - ain't it?
