United States Patent Application: 0100105962
We earlier reported that collaborative scientists in Texas and Saudi Arabia, all in the employ of Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation, "SABIC", had developed, and applied for a United States Patent on, a process wherein Carbon Dioxide, whether, we suggest, reclaimed from the atmosphere or sucked back up out of a leaky old oil well, where it had, by law, been "sequestered", could be catalytically reacted with gases containing Hydrogen and converted thereby into a synthesis gas suitable for further catalytic reaction, as, perhaps, through Fischer-Tropsch, or related, technology, and subsequent conversion into liquid hydrocarbons.
Our report is available as: Saudi Arabia Coverts CO2 to Fuel | Research & Development | News; and, it details: "United States Patent Application Publication Number US2010/0190874A1; Catalytic Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide into Syngas Mixtures; Publication date: July 29, 2010; Inventors: Agaddin Mamedov, Texas, and Abdulaziz Al-Jodai, et. al., Riyadh, Saudi Arabia".
As it happens, that Saudi US Patent Application related, apparently, to an improvement on, or an extension of, a Carbon Dioxide recycling process for which the same inventors had, earlier in the same year, sought US Patent protection.
Comment follows excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to the almost identically-titled:
"United States Patent Application 20100105962 - Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide into Syngas Mixture
Date: April 29, 2010
Inventors: Agaddin Mamedov, Texas, and Abdulaziz Al-Jodai, Riyadh
Assignee: Saudi Basic Industries Corporation
Abstract: The invention relates to a process of making a syngas mixture containing hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, comprising a step of contacting a gaseous feed mixture containing carbon dioxide and hydrogen with a catalyst, wherein the catalyst substantially consists of chromia/alumina. This process enables hydrogenation of carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide with high selectivity, and good catalyst stability over time and under variations in processing conditions. The process can be applied separately, but can also be combined with other processes, for example up-stream with other synthesis processes for making products like aliphatic oxygenates, olefins or aromatics.
Claims: A process of making a syngas mixture containing hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, comprising a step of contacting a gaseous feed mixture containing carbon dioxide and hydrogen with a catalyst, consisting essentially of chromium .... (with) optionally at least one alkali metal or alkaline earth metal as promoter, and alumina as support.
(And) wherein the feed mixture further comprises methane.
Description: The invention relates to a catalytic process for producing a syngas mixture from carbon dioxide.
In the past decades, numerous processes have been developed to produce synthesis gas, which is one of the most important feedstocks in the chemical industry. Syngas is a gaseous mixture containing hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO), which may further contain other gas components like carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), methane (CH4), and/or nitrogen (N2). ... Syngas is successfully used as synthetic fuel and also in a number of chemical processes, such as synthesis of methanol or ammonia, Fischer-Tropsch type and other olefin syntheses, ..., etc.
(And) syngas processes frequently use methane as a main feed gas component, which can be converted to syngas by steam reforming (and) CO2 reforming ... .
The object of the present invention is ...to provide a catalyst that shows improved selectivity in reducing carbon dioxide with hydrogen into a syngas mixture, with only very little methane formation, and with good catalyst stability. This object is achieved according to the invention by contacting a gaseous feed mixture containing carbon dioxide and hydrogen with a catalyst that substantially consists of chromium as active constituent, optionally at least one alkali metal or alkaline earth metal as promoter, and alumina as support.
With the process according to the present invention carbon dioxide can be hydrogenated into carbon monoxide with high selectivity ... .
A further advantage of the process according to the invention is that the stoichiometric number (SN) of the syngas mixture obtained can be varied over a wide range, e.g. by varying the composition of the feed mixture. SN can, for example, vary from 0.5 to 3.0; making it possible to apply the syngas mixture obtained as a starting material in the synthesis of various other products; like alkanes, such as ethane, propane and iso-butane; aldehydes; ethers like dimethylether; or alcohols such as methanol. (And) a further advantage is that the process can be applied separately, but can also be combined with for example up-stream synthesis processes for (the) above-mentioned products.
The amount of hydrogen in the feed gas ... (may be varied) widely ... .The advantage thereof is that the syngas composition can be adjusted and controlled to match the desired use requirements.
In the process according to the present invention, carbon dioxide is selectively converted into carbon monoxide by a reverse water gas shift reaction in the presence of a chromia/alumina catalyst. The resulting product of this CO2 hydrogenation process is a gas mixture containing carbon monoxide and water, and non-converted carbon dioxide and hydrogen."
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As the Saudi's and Texans specify, the syngas they can make, as herein, from Carbon Dioxide, can be further processed to generate "methanol or ... Fischer-Tropsch type" products; i.e., liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
Note that mention is made of utilizing Methane in the feed mixture, presumably as a source of Hydrogen; and, recall that we can make all of the Methane we might need for this Carbon Dioxide recycling process either, via long-known Steam-gasification techniques, from Coal; as in our recent report appearing as: 1960 Improved Coal Conversion | Research & Development | News, wherein is described how to manufacture "a gas rich in hydrogen", such as Methane, from the "gasification of coal with oxygen and steam"; or, if preferred, via the 1912 Nobel-winning Sabatier process now being, as we've documented, further refined by NASA, from Carbon Dioxide itself.
Elemental Hydrogen is, though, specified as well for use in this process; and, we further remind you that refiners of petroleum already have industrial technologies available to produce such Hydrogen for the upgrading of "heavy" crude oils and refinery residues.
Further, in confirmation of earlier of our reports regarding similar technology, the "amount of hydrogen" utilized can be adjusted over a relatively broad range, thereby enabling the production of a range of hydrocarbons, including "ethane, propane and iso-butane", the substitute Diesel fuel, "dimethylether", and, "alcohols such as methanol"
It is thus known, in Saudi Arabia, Texas and, as herein, in certain circles in Washington, DC, that Carbon Dioxide can be productively recycled in the synthesis of, for one example, "methanol".
And, we again remind you that Methanol, once we have it, as herein synthesized from Carbon Dioxide, can be further converted, via, for one example, ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r) process, into Gasoline.
All of that, again, is known in Saudi Arabia, Texas and Washington, DC.