We have, in recent months, been reporting on technologies that have been developed, some by the petroleum industry and dating back to the 1940's, wherein Carbon Dioxide can be reacted with Methane, which itself, it has been known since award of the 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Paul Sabatier, can be made from Carbon Dioxide, to synthesize higher hydrocarbons.
Those sorts of reactions are known as the "dry reforming", or "bi-reforming" of Carbon Dioxide, or of Methane, as opposed to "tri-reforming", wherein Steam, as we understand it, is added to the reaction mix of Methane and CO2. Tri-reforming, as we have reported, and as we hope to further report, is being further developed by a number of research facilities around the world, including, again as we have documented, Israel and Switzerland, and, more notably for us, Penn State University, NASA, and several technology corporations under contract to the United States Department of Defense.
The topic is well-known enough for it to be listed in popular references. Even the "Wikipedia" provides an, incomplete, exposition of the topic, as per the following excerpt from their web-based reference:
"Carbon dioxide reforming ... is a method of producing synthesis gas (mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) from the reaction of carbon dioxide with hydrocarbons such as methane."
Their entry is actually incomplete and, we believe, erroneous in certain respects, and we do not recommend it in this case as a reference, although they do provide links to other, fuller information resources. Our purpose in pointing it out is to emphasize that the potential for this type of technology, wherein Carbon Dioxide can actually be productively used, instead of being expensively stuffed down a West Texas rat hole to the benefit of the petroleum industry, is very real, and is being explored and developed by various research organizations around the world.
As more evidence of that fact, we submit, via the enclosed link and attached document, report of Carbon Dioxide recycling achievements by collaborative scientists in Norway and Germany; said report being housed, oddly, in the University of California, Los Angeles library.
Some very brief excerpts:
"Studies of Dry Reforming of Methane
Industrial Engineering Chemical Research; 1997
Unni Olslye, et. al., Norway and Germany
In the last decade, carbon dioxide reforming of methane has attained wide research interest. The reaction can be applied for producing syngas with a low H2:CO ratio suitable for the synthesis of oxygenated chemicals (and) has been studied as a storage for solar energy."
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Their full exposition is technically quite dense, and is not, really, recommended reading for those less technically oriented.
We must point out, though, that they do note Carbon Dioxide conversions in excess of 90% can be achieved; and, that Steam can be added to the reforming reaction mix to produce other sorts of useful hydrocarbons.
