Via separate report, we are submitting an article with the self-explanatory title: "Coal-To-Liquid Fuels Have Lower GHG Than Some Refined Fuels".
Whether Coal-derived liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels do, or do not, produce less greenhouse gas than their petroleum-based counterparts should, by now, you will understand if you have followed our posts thus far, be a moot point.
We'll presume you to have read our earlier reports of such technologies as those disclosed, for instance, in "US Patent 3,959, 094 - Synthesis of Methanol from CO2" and "US Patent 4,609,441 - Electrochemical Reduction of Aqueous CO2 to Methanol" and, thus, know that Carbon Dioxide, the most notorious of the accused greenhouse culprits, from whatever source it arises, can be productively reclaimed, and recycled into valuable hydrocarbons.
Again presuming you to have followed our reports, we are hopeful you will recall the various Carbon conversion technologies that have been developed at Southern Illinois University (SIU), especially by one of their scientists, Bakul Dave.
We submit herein a different sort of Carbon Dioxide recycling technology - relative to others, such as the Nobel-winning Sabatier process, and the various bi-reforming and tri-reforming technologies, such as espoused by Penn State University - which has been developed at SIU.
It is based on the use of known enzymes to facilitate, and to reduce the energy needed for, the chemical transmutation of Carbon Dioxide into Methanol.
We note that the technology disclosed in this United States Patent Application is not unheard of. As evidence, we include, following our very brief excerpts from the above link and attached file, some additional links to, and similarly brief excerpts from, international sources of information concerning the use of "Sol-Gel" processes for Carbon Dioxide recycling, as follows:
"US Patent Application Number 2007/0042479 A1 - Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Methanol
Publication Date: February, 2007
Inventors: Bakul C. Dave, et. al., Illinois
Abstract: (A) sequential enzymatic reduction of carbon dioxide to methanol.
The present invention is ... directed to a novel method for conversion of carbon dioxide to methanol."
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The technicalities of Dave's enzyme-based process are beyond our scope, if not our general understanding.
They are not beyond the understanding of others in the world, though, as evidenced by the following:
"Enzymatic Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Methanol by Dehydrogenases in Sol-Gel Matrix
June, 2003
Zhongyi Jiang, et. al.; Tianjin University, China
Abstract: The effective generation of methanol directly from gaseous carbon dioxide has received considerable attention in recent years since it can recycle the greenhouse gas and produce a clean fuel. Herein, we report an enzymatic approach for carbon dioxide fixation using (specified enzymes) co-encapsulated in a silica gel as the catalysts."
"Efficient Conversion of CO2 to Methanol Catalyzed by Three Dehydrogenases
May, 2006
Song-wei Xu, et. al.; Tianjin University, China
Abstract: In this study, the conversion of carbon dioxide to methanol was realized through a novel biochemical approach that was catalyzed by three dehydrogenases ... ."
"Green and Efficient Conversion of CO2 to Methanol
March, 2009
Qianyun Sun, et. al.; Tianjin University, China
Abstract: A green and efficient multi-enzyme system was established, which efficiently converted carbon dioxide into methanol ... ."
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In other words, we can, in an efficient and environmentally-friendly fashion, convert Carbon Dioxide, as arises from our vital Coal-use industries in a small, even miniscule, way, relative to natural sources of emission, such as volcanism, into the liquid fuel, Methanol.
Methanol, via ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r), methanol-to-gasoline, technology, as disclosed in: United States Patent: 4035430 - "United States Patent 4,035,430 - Conversion of Methanol to Gasoline; July, 1977; Mobil Oil Corporation, NY; Abstract: The conversion of methanol to gasoline boiling products ... .", can be further converted into more familiar liquid fuels; or, it can be used as the raw material for the manufacture of certain plastics, where the Carbon Dioxide originally consumed in it's synthesis would be permanently, and productively, sequestered.
