We earlier reported "United States Patent 3,959, 094 - Synthesis of Methanol from Carbon Dioxide;", issued in 1976, which detailed technology developed by scientists working at the United States Government's Brookhaven, NY, National Laboratory, wherein Carbon Dioxide, absorbed by a water solution of Potassium Hydroxide, could be electrolyzed, and thus made to produce the liquid fuel, Methanol.
Herein, we see that subsequent improvements were made on that type of Carbon Dioxide recycling technology, as confirmed by the United States Patent Office.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 4,609,441 - Electrochemical Reduction of Aqueous Carbon Dioxide to Methanol
Date: September, 1986
Inventor: Karl Frese, et. al, California
Assignee: Gas Research Institute, Chicago
Abstract: A method of producing methanol from carbon dioxide is set forth. A solution of carbon dioxide in an aqueous solvent having electrolyte dissolved therein is electrolyzed utilizing a molybdenum cathode. Faradaic efficiency is generally quite high and without detectable corrosion.
Claims: A method of producing methanol from carbon dioxide (which comprises) electrolyzing a solution of carbon dioxide in an aqueous solvent having an electrolyte therein and utilizing a cathode which comprises molybdenum to produce methanol.
Field: The invention relates to the electrochemical reduction of aqueous carbon dioxide to form methanol."
Field: The invention relates to the electrochemical reduction of aqueous carbon dioxide to form methanol."
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The full Disclosure reveals that this technology is, in point of fact, a direct advancement on, and improvement of, the US Government-owned CO2-recycling process referenced above; and, Patent 3,959, 094 is cited specifically as the basis for this development.
In the specifics, Chicago's Gas Research Institute reveals that they improved the efficiencies of converting Carbon Dioxide and Water to Methanol, and significantly reduced the energy needed to accomplish the reactions, relative to the earlier Brookhaven Lab process.
Keeping in mind that Methanol is, without modification, a serviceable liquid fuel; and, that it can be both further transformed, via ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r) process, into Gasoline, and serve as the raw material for the manufacture of certain plastics, all as we have previously documented, we have to ask: