SYNTHESIS OF HYDROCARBONS VIA CATALYTIC REDUCTION OF CO2
In a number of earlier reports, we documented the strategic development, by the United States Department of Defense, of technologies that enable the conversion of Carbon Dioxide harvested from the environment into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
Patents for such technology, including one for a full scale "Fuel Production Ship", again as we documented, have been applied for by defense contractors Hamilton Standard and United Technologies.
Herein, we see that the United States Navy has applied for it's own US Patent for related Carbon Dioxide recycling technology.
"US Patent Application 2008/0051478A1 - Synthesis of Hydrocarbons via Catalytic Reduction of CO2
Publication Date: February, 2008
Inventors: Nick Tran, Dennis Hardy, et. al., DC and VA
Assignee: The Government of the US, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
Abstract: A method of: introducing hydrogen and a feed gas containing at least 50 volume % carbon dioxide into a reactor containing Fischer-Tropsch catalyst; and heating the hydrogen and carbon dioxide to a temperature of at least 190 C to produce hydrocarbons in the reactor. An apparatus having: a reaction vessel for containing a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst, capable of heating gases to at least about 190 C; a hydrogen delivery system for feeding into the reaction vessel; a carbon dioxide delivery system for delivering a feed gas containing at least 50 volume % carbon dioxide feeding into the reaction vessel; and a trap for collecting hydrocarbons generated in the reaction vessel.
There are several well-established processes for direct hydrogenation of gases such as CO or CO2 to produce hydrocarbon fuels. One of the most successful was developed in Germany in the 1920's by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch. In 1938, early German plants produced 591,000 metric tons ... of oil and gasoline using the Fischer-Tropsch process ... . The problem with these methods is that they use fossil fuels to produce the CO, CO2 and H2 used.
(When the fossil fuel is Coal, do we really see that as a "problem"?)
Additionally, well-known methods have been developed to produce methanol from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. One successful process is the Lurgi process. (See US patent application Nos. 11/108,149 and 60/562,410. ...) Methanol can also be used as a feedstock to produce traditional automotive gasoline.
The invention comprises a method comprising: introducing hydrogen and a feed gas containing at least 50 volume % carbon dioxide into a reactor containing a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst; and heating the hydrogen and carbon dioxide to a temperature of at least about 190 C to produce hydrocarbons in the reactor.
The hydrogen and carbon dioxide can be introduced into the reactor in gaseous form. The carbon dioxide feed gas contains at least 50, 75, 90 or 99 volume % carbon dioxide. ... (The) hydrogen may be extracted from water ... by electrolysis. The carbon dioxide may be extracted from ambient air or from seawater."
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As we have documented in earlier reports, the USDOE Sandia, Los Alamos, Idaho and Brookhaven National Laboratories, and NASA, have all been at work on similar and related technologies.
The National Laboratories posit that environmental energy, such as solar and hydroelectric, can be harvested and used to accomplish the necessary collection of Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere; and, the "splitting" of Water to provide the needed Hydrogen.