Simply: Carbon Dioxide can be collected and then electrolyzed, in the presence of "OH", hydroxide, ions to form the liquid fuel and, as in ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r) process, Gasoline raw material, Methanol.
The technology disclosed in this United States Patent, developed and owned by the United States Department of Energy, is thus closely related to similar processes we have already documented for the West Virginia Coal Association that were developed by contractors, such as United Technologies, for our United States Department of Defense.
The difference in the Carbon Dioxide recycling technology developed by USDOE scientist Meyer Steinberg lies in the fact that the "OH" ion, needed to react with the CO2, is derived not from the electrolysis of Water, but from the electrolysis of a solution of Potassium Hydroxide and Potassium Carbonate/Bicarbonate in Water.
That fact has a few important implications perhaps not clearly spelled out by the Brookhaven, NY, National Laboratory's Steinberg.
First: The solution of Potassium by Water, to form the Potassium Hydroxide, KOH, specified by Steinberg, is an aggressive, exothermic reaction that needs no help in getting started or, aside from the addition of new raw materials, in continuing.
And, that reaction generates Hydrogen as a by-product, which could be collected and utilized in other, follow-on and related, processes of Carbon hydrogenation. However, we suppose that, once Steinberg's process is in motion, it will likely be unnecessary to create much more KOH in that fashion, unless it is desired to do so. Subsequent processing seems to regenerate much, if not all, of the original KOH.
Second: KOH solutions are almost ideal, and in some cases are specified, for use in Carbon Dioxide scrubbers. The CO2 passing through reacts with the Potassium Hydroxide to form Potassium Carbonate, and/or Bicarbonate, one supposes, still in solution with Water.
Those solutions dramatically reduce the electrical resistance of Water; and, as a consequence, they dramatically reduce the electrical energy required to reduce, to electrolyze, the solutions into reactive components of Hydrogen, Carbon and Oxygen, that can then be recombined, as in this USDOE process, to form Methanol.
Steinberg, the USDOE and the US Patent Office spelled it all out, more than three decades ago, in:
"United States Patent 3,959, 094 - Synthesis of Methanol from Carbon Dioxide
Date: May, 1976
Inventor: Meyer Steinberg, NY
Assignee: The United States of America
Abstract: A method and system for synthesizing methanol from the CO2 in air using electric power. The CO2 is absorbed by a solution of KOH to form K2CO3 which is electrolyzed to produce methanol, a liquid hydrocarbon fuel."
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We cut our very brief excerpts short here. The main point, and it's implications, should be obvious.
But, we want to make certain they are clear, by again emphasizing a few things:
Methanol, once produced, as herein, from Carbon Dioxide, although a serviceable liquid fuel in it's own right, can be further converted, via, for instance, ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r) process, into Gasoline.
Moreover, Methanol is an excellent raw material for the manufacture of some plastics, wherein the Carbon Dioxide originally consumed in it's synthesis would be permanently, and profitably, sequestered.
And: The solution of KOH, KHCO3 and/or K2CO3 in Water dramatically reduces the electric resistance of the Water, and thus makes it much more feasible, much more economical, to use the off-peak demand spare "juice" generated by a Coal-fired power plant to drive the electrolytic reaction.
We can, as confirmed herein by both the United States Department of Energy and the United States Patent Office, economically convert Carbon Dioxide, entrained, as a for instance, in the KOH-based CO2 scrubbing solution from a Coal-fired power plant's smoke stack, into the liquid fuel, Methanol.
Finally, we conclude with a final excerpt, which you will find in the full Disclosure:
"Coal is a more economic near-long term alternative fuel than nuclear energy and will be used to supplement domestic liquid and gaseous fossil resources."
That, as documented herein, is an official statement, made more than three decades ago, by one branch of the United States Government, the Department of Energy, and confirmed by another, the Patent Office.
In sum, according to our own United States Government:
We can synthesize "methanol from the CO2 in air using electric power"; and, coal "will be used to supplement domestic liquid and gaseous fossil resources".