It is actually a group of scientists from both Iceland and the United States that has applied for a patent on technology that would enable us to convert Carbon Dioxide into Gasoline, Methanol and/or Diesel Fuel.
If you have followed our posts, none of that should be shocking or surprising; technologies to accomplish all of that have actually been in place for a long time. We just haven't yet been given the privilege of hearing about them - for whatever reason.
As is often the case with United States Patent Applications, World Patent Applications don't seem to publish the inventors' corporate or institutional affiliations, or the eventual patent rights Assignees, if any. So, even though we've done a little online digging and can make some guesses, we can't, with assurance, provide you with more background in that regard which might further support the credibility of the technology disclosed herein.
One thing we can tell you, though: Iceland, like Hawaii, is a volcanic island; and, you might recall the disruption in air traffic and weather patterns, not too many years ago, caused by the eruption of just one of Iceland's active volcanoes.
And, you might also recall the Carbon Dioxide emissions data we were once able to document for you from Hawaii's volcanoes. Presuming Iceland to be somewhat similar, we assure you:
In terms of Carbon Dioxide emissions, comparing West Virginia, with her Coal-fired power plants, to Iceland, with her volcanic vents, would be like comparing a mouse with a slight case of the beer farts to an elephant who eats nothing but beans.
There is really no comparison.
And, again as we once documented, as we hope you recall, a US Defense Department official, cognizant of the very real technology that exists for converting Coal into liquid fuels, once said that West Virginia, if she ever woke up to the fact that Coal can be efficiently liquefied, could become the "New Kuwait".
We assure you of this, as well: If Iceland, with all of her natural Carbon Dioxide, eventually reduces the technology disclosed herein to broad commercial practice, she could darned-well become a whole new OPEC, all unto herself.
Brief comment follows excerpts from the enclosed link to:
"World Patent Application Number: PCT/IS2007/000007
Title: PROCESS FOR PRODUCING LIQUID FUEL FROM CARBON DIOXIDE AND WATER
Inventors: Arthur Schulenberger, US; Oddur Ingolfson, Iceland; et. al.
Abstract: A process for producing high octane fuel from carbon dioxide and water is disclosed. The feedstock for the production line is industrial carbon dioxide and water, which may be of lower quality. Water is electrolysed into hydrogen and oxygen. The end product can be high octane gasoline, high cetane diesel or other liquid hydrocarbon mixtures suitable for driving conventional combustion engines or hydrocarbon suitable for further industrial processing or commercial use. Products, such as dimethyl ether or methanol may also be withdrawn from the production line. The process is emission free and reprocesses all hydrocarbons not suitable for liquid fuel to form high octane products. The heat generated by exothermic reactions in the process is fully utilized as is the heat produced in the reprocessing of hydrocarbons not suitable for liquid fuel.
Field: The present invention is broadly within the field of energy conversion and relates to processes for producing hydrogen by electrolysis of water, processes for reacting hydrogen with carbon dioxide for producing methanol and/or producing syngas and processes for synthetic liquid fuel production.
Background: Currently, two processes have been used on industrial scale to produce synthetic liquid hydrocarbon fuel. One is the SASOL process which is based on classic Fisher-Tropsch chemistry and converts coal to syngas, which is converted to a variety of hydrocarbons via the Fisher-Tropsch synthesis. The other is the Mobil Methanol-to-Gasoline process (MTG), which was utilized on large scale in New Zealand to convert natural gas to high octane gasoline fuel.
Syngas or synthesis gas is a term used for gases of varying composition that are generated in coal gasification, steam reforming of natural gas and some types of waste-to-energy facilities. The name comes from their use in creating synthetic petroleum for use as a fuel or lubricant via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Syngas consists primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen ... .
The conversion of methanol to gasoline using the Mobile methanol to gasoline process (MTG) is a viable alternative to the Fisher-Tropsch synthesis when converting syngas to liquid fuel. This process, where the syngas is first converted to methanol and the methanol is converted in a second step, over dimethyl ether (DME) to high octane gasoline, went first on stream in New Zealand in 1985 and was producing about 14,500 B/D a year later. Since 1997 the New Zealand facilities are used exclusively for methanol production.
The Fisher Tropsch process was developed by the German researchers Franz Fisher and Hans Tropsch in the 1920s. It is a well documented process that has been used on industrial scale for production of diesel and other synthetic petroleum products for decades. This process is used by a number of companies today to produced low-sulfur diesel and other petroleum products on large scale. For example, SASOL has implemented this process since 1955 to produce petroleum fuel, AMSOIL introduced their first synthetic diesel in 1975 and since 1993 shell operates a 14700 bbl/day GTL plant in Malaysia. (All from Coal.)
It is ... important ... to develop a process that allows recycling carbon dioxide to a valuable product such as liquid fuel. It is even more beneficial to develop a process to recycle carbon dioxide to a liquid fuel that is equivalent or even superior to the currently used gasoline and diesel, and can substitute these without any need for technical or infrastructural changes.
Summary: The present invention provides a integrated, emission-free process for conversion of carbon dioxide and water to liquid fuel, such as high octane gasoline or diesel, suitable to drive combustion engines. The process may also be used to produce other hydrocarbons or hydrocarbon mixtures suitable for driving conventional combustion engines or hydrocarbons suitable for further industrial processing or other commercial use. Intermediate products such as methanol or dimethylether may also be generated by the production process of the invention. The overall process comprises in a preferred embodiment the conversion of water and carbon dioxide to C5+ hydrocarbons (i.e., with five or more carbon atoms), preferably C5-C10 hydrocarbons. The overall process may also encompass the conversion of water and carbon dioxide to high cetane diesel or other liquid hydrocarbon mixtures suitable for driving conventional diesel combustion engines."
----------
We won't attempt discussion of the technical details. There is nothing in them inconsistent with technology we have earlier documented for you from other, US and international, sources.
Carbon Dioxide can be converted into liquid hydrocarbon fuels. And, just as West Virginia has a ready supply of Hydro and Wind power, and waste power plant heat, she could harness to the task of recycling Carbon Dioxide, Iceland has geothermal, wind, hydro and tidal sources of environmental energy out the wazoo.
If we don't wake up, in the United States, to the very real potentials for converting Coal and recycling Carbon Dioxide into the liquid fuels we need, and soon, we'll wind up a few decades from now still begging for breaks on the price of Oil, only the people we'll be begging from won't be wearing turbans.
