APPARATUS FOR CO CONVERSION TO METHANE
Actually, it was an Illinois scientist in the employ of a Swedish company, with some headquarters offices in the Netherlands, who informs us herein that, in a much later version of the 1912 Nobel-winning Sabatier process, Carbon Dioxide can be converted into Methane.
First, the named assignee for the rights to this Carbon Dioxide recycling technology is the "SKF Trading Company"; and, even though they are listed as being headquartered in Amsterdam, they actually originated in Sweden, and are a fairly significant multi-national corporation.
As the following link, with excerpts, attests:
This is SKF - SKF.com; "SKF Group is the leading global supplier of products, solutions and services within rolling bearings, seals, mechatronics, services and lubrication systems. SKF was founded in 1907 and grew at a rapid rate to become a global company. As early as 1920, the company was well established in Europe, North and Latin America, Asia and Africa. Today, SKF is represented in more than 130 countries. The company has more than 100 manufacturing sites and also sales companies supported by about 15,000 distributor locations."
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And, yes, SKF does have facilities in and around Chicago, where we presume them to have employed the scientist who developed, as excerpted from the initial link in this dispatch, and from the attached file, a process wherein Carbon Dioxide can be converted into Methane:
"United States Patent 3,852,180 - Apparatus for CO2 Conversion to Methane
Date: December, 1974
Inventor: Derek Gregory, Illinois
Assignee: SKF Industrial Trading and Development Company, Amsterdam
Abstract: A process of fixation and conversion of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or other sources to produce methane and oxygen.
Carbon dioxide is scrubbed from a CO2-containing source and separated by a process of chemical concentration.
A special cell is provided in which hydrogen is produced and reacted with the separated CO2 at methanation conditions to produce methane.
Background: This invention pertains to the recovery and conversion of carbon dioxide from air or other sources to produce methane. More particularly, this invention pertains to a process of recovery of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or other sources, followed by methanation of the CO2 with hydrogen in a special electrochemical cell which combines the production of purge hydrogen with methanation.
(The) depletion of the fossil hydrocarbons endangers not only the energy supplies, but also the basic building blocks for numerous end products, principally plastics, paints, solvents, drugs, pharmaceuticals, detergents, rubbers and the like.
In addition, as the fossil fuels are burned, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere tends to rise.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a process which can help to maintain the level of CO2 in the atmosphere ..., and convert it to methane as a basic fuel source of energy, and as a feed stock for industrial processes for producing a wide range of organic chemicals.
It is another object of this invention to recover carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or other sources such as combustion flue gases.
It is another object of this invention to conserve the world supply of fossil hydrocarbons.
It is another object of this invention to provide a process for the fixation of atmospheric or other carbon dioxide coupled with a process for the production of hydrogen followed by methanation of the scavenged carbon dioxide.
Summary: In the process of this invention, carbon dioxide is scrubbed from the atmosphere or other sources by a carbon dioxide absorber, from which the carbon dioxide is then liberated by regeneration with heat and swept out of the regenerator with a stream of purge hydrogen or methane.
The hydrogen is produced in a special electrolysis cell having an electrolyte compatible with CO2 and operated at methanation conditions, with the hydrogen evolving electrode being fed with the CO2 evolved from the regeneration stage of the absorber.
In the first step of the process in accord with this invention, carbon dioxide is separated from air or other sources such as combustion process flue gases by any conventional means ... .
(Since everyone seems so keen on compelling all of us Coal Country rubes to, all at our and Coal's expense, collect and ship all of our effluent CO2 down to West Texas, so that the good Big Oil folk down there can pump it down their leaky old oil wells and force more petroleum out of them, and force more profit out of us, we suppose that there are, in fact, "conventional means" to extract CO2 from "combustion process flue gases". - JtM)
Hydrogen is obtained relatively free of oxygen by the electrolysis of water in an acid electrolysis zone utilizing suitable acid electrolytes.
The by-product oxygen formed by the electrolysis has utility in a broad application of industrial processes such as steel production, advanced sewage treatment and water recycling processes."
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As, from our earlier posts, you should by now know, the conceptually-related Sabatier technology is now being employed on board the International Space Station to make, primarily, Oxygen from the Carbon Dioxide exhaled by astronauts. The co-produced Methane is being dumped overboard.
We submit that the "by-product" Oxygen co-produced by SKF's CO2 recycling technology could, indeed, find commercial use in an array of industrial processes, even beyond those specified above.
And, a byproduct with demonstrated commercial value, like Oxygen, would certainly help to defray or offset the costs of the Methane ultimately produced by this SKF process.
Further, we remind you of, as just one example out of now many, now posted on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site as: Amoco CO2 + CH4 = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development | News; wherein is documented the development, by another company with a presence in Illinois, of yet another Carbon Dioxide reforming process, similar in concept to the "bi-reforming" and "tri-reforming" technologies that have, as we've documented, been developed by, among others, both WVU and Penn State; and, wherein Methane, as in SKF's process synthesized from Carbon Dioxide, can be made to react with even more Carbon Dioxide, and to synthesize through such reactions various alcohols, including Methanol.
Some details from that report include:
"United States Patent 5,614,163 - Process for Making Synthesis Gas; Date: March, 1997; Inventors: Alakananda Bhattacharyya, et. al., Illinois; Assignee: Amoco Corporation, Chicago; Abstract: A process is disclosed for preparing a synthesis gas comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide by partial oxidation of hydrocarbyl compounds using a source of oxygen comprising molecular oxygen, carbon dioxide, or mixtures thereof in the presence of a catalyst comprising thermally stable mixtures formed by heat treating a hydrotalcite-like compound. (And) wherein the oxygen-containing gas comprises carbon dioxide. (And) wherein partial oxidation of at least one compound selected from the group consisting of methane and ethane is carried out ... ."
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We remind you again that "a synthesis gas comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide", as made by Amoco by reacting Carbon Dioxide with Methane, which can itself, via the US-Patented SKF process we report herein, be made from Carbon Dioxide, can be catalytically condensed via a number of known processes, such as the venerable Fischer-Tropsch technology, into liquid fuels, including Methanol and Gasoline-range hydrocarbons.