United States Patent Application: 0030060355
As is sometimes the case in United States Patent Applications published by the US Patent and Trademark Office, the corporate assignee of the patent rights is not identfied in the document we enclose herein.
However, other web-based resources clearly identify the two named Oklahoma inventors as being employees of ConocoPhillips - who are officially headquartered in Houston, Texas; and, who coalesced into existence, in 2002, through the merger of Conoco and Phillips Petroleum.
Moreover, the inventors herein teamed up with a larger group of ConocoPhillips scientists to develop, and to apply for US and international patents on, an "indirect" Carbon Dioxide recycling technology which we will, in coming days, make report of.
Regardless of all of that, the process described herein, via US Patent Application 0030060355, could almost be considered only an advancement on, or an extension of, somewhat standard petroleum refining techniques.
The conversion of some components of crude petroleum feeds into a synthesis gas, for further processing and upgrading, is, as we have earlier documented, commonly practiced.
And, such processing of natural crude oil does, again as we've previously documented, and as people aren't generally aware of, and/or don't much like to have publicized, generate truly impressive and meaningful quantities of Carbon Dioxide - which is, most often, in petroleum refineries, simply vented to the atmosphere.
Further, again as we've documented, refiners of petroleum also have routine industrial methods in hand for the generation of Hydrogen, which is needed for the "hydrorefining", the upgrading, of heavy crudes.
Even further, also as we've thoroughly reported, "zeolite" minerals, which would be familiar to anyone whose ever had to rely on "hard" water drawn from a well, and used a commercial water softener to condition it, are often specified as the catalysts, or catalyst substrates, of choice in petroleum refinery operations such as those just mentioned.
And, zeolite-based catalysis, also as we've detailed for you, is at the heart of ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r), methanol-to-gasoline, technology; wherein the Methanol is most often posited to be made from Coal, just as Eastman Chemical is now making Methanol from Coal, on a commercial basis, in Kingsport, Tennessee; and, as we've reported, as is starting to be done, by various entities, on a broader scale in China.
In any case, we see herein that ConocoPhillips are bringing all of those facts together, out in Oklahoma, and are making ready to start synthesizing Methanol, and related products, out of their petroleum refinery effluent Carbon Dioxide - and, out of any other Carbon Dioxide dupes in other parts of the nation might be conned into sending them.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent Application 20030060355 - Converting Carbon Dioxide to Oxygenates
Date: March, 2003
Inventors: Jinhua Yao and James Kimble, Bartlesville, OK
Abstract: A catalyst and process for converting carbon dioxide into oxygenates. The catalyst comprises copper, zinc, aluminum, gallium, and a solid acid.
Claims: A catalyst composition comprising: copper; zinc; aluminum; gallium; and a solid acid; ... said solid acid comprising a zeolite; (and) said solid acid comprising ZSM-5.
(And) A catalyst composition for converting carbon dioxide to methanol and dimethyl ether.
(And) A process for converting a carbon dioxide-containing feed into oxygenates .... said carbon dioxide-containing feed further comprising hydrogen."
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We'll leave our excerpts at that - which should be enough to motivate anyone truly interested in the economic health of US Coal Country to delve a little deeper.
We remind you that Methanol, in addition to the fact that it can be converted into Gasoline, is also an excellent starting material for the manufacture of a variety of useful plastics - where the Carbon Dioxide consumed in the synthesis of that Methanol would be forever chemically "sequestered".
Dimethyl Ether can, among other uses, be employed directly as a Diesel fuel.
In other words, we can, as herein, with some extrapolation, make Gasoline and Diesel out of Carbon Dioxide.