WV Coal Member Meeting 2024 1240x200 1 1

Japan Recycles CO2 to Liquid Fuels


 
This brief submission again documents that Carbon Dioxide can be reclaimed and recycled into liquid fuels; in this case, Methanol and/or Dimethyl Ether - a hydrocarbon that can, as we have elsewhere documented, serve as a substitute for Diesel fuel or be further converted, as can Methanol, into Gasoline.
 
Comment follows excerpts from:

"Title: Dimethyl Ether Synthesis from Carbon Dioxide
 
Journal: Kansai Denryoku, 2002
 
Author: Hirano Masaki, Kansai Electric Power Company, Inc., Japan
 
Abstract: The objective of this research is to find a catalyst for directly synthesizing dimethyl ether (DME), which is expected to be a new energy for the future, using CO2 and H2 as materials. After considering three types of .GAMMA.-Al2O3 with different specific surface areas, four tyes of compound oxides and a zeolite as catalysts for DME synthesis by methanol dehydration, ZrO2 Al2O3 compound oxide showed the highest DME synthesis activity. Also, the DME direct synthesis test from CO2 and H2 was conducted by combining the methanol synthesis catalyst, developed by our company, and ZrO2 Al2O3. In the one stage reaction in which methanol synthesis and DME synthesis were acted at the same temperature, a methanol+DME yield of 92% and a DME selectivity of 48% were obtained by recycling unreacted CO2 and H2. In the two stage reaction in which methanol synthesis and DME synthesis were acted at different temperatures, a methanol+DME yield of 99% and a DME selectivity of 61% were obtained."
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Our take on this is that nearly 100%, as in "yield of 92%", of the Carbon Dioxide is converted into the Gasoline, as per ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r) process, raw material, Methanol; and/or the direct Diesel fuel replacement, Dimethyl Ether; by reacting Carbon Dioxide with Hydrogen in this Japan-invented process utilizing zeolite catalysts.
 
Yes, free Hydrogen does seem to be required, and there would be costs associated with producing it via, for instance, the electrolysis of Water.