Production of hydrogen and carbon monoxide
We previously submitted report, as accessible via: Eastman Chemical CO2 to Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development | News; of: "United States Patent 5,068,057 - Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Carbon Monoxide; 1991; Assignee; Eastman Kodak Company, New York", wherein Eastman company scientists working at their Kingsport, Tennessee, Coal-to-Methanol conversion factory, disclosed their technique for recycling Carbon Dioxide, reclaimed from whatever source, into a synthesis gas which could be catalytically condensed into liquid hydrocarbons.
Herein, we see that other Eastman scientists, working at another Eastman facility, about which we have earlier reported, in Texas, continued to develop that technology for the productive recycling of Carbon Dioxide, and were, later in the same decade, awarded yet another United States Patent, in which is disclosed what we take to be a very sophisticated process - which reflects a very high degree of understanding of the technology among the Eastman scientists involved - wherein Carbon Dioxide can not only be transformed into hydrocarbon synthesis gas; but, the admixtures of other raw materials, including Methane, Steam and elemental Hydrogen, can be adjusted within certain ranges, so that a synthesis gas of variable composition, suitable for catalytic condensation into a range of specific liquid hydrocarbons, can be produced.
Comment follows excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to, and the attached file of:
"United States Patent 5,741,440 - Production of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide
Date: April, 1998
Inventors: James Cooper and Eugene Ingram, Texas
Assignee: Eastman Chemical Company, Kingsport, Tennessee
Abstract: A method for the preparation of a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide is disclosed. The invention method entails contacting carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and at least one hydrocarbon in the presence of a catalyst containing an active metal.
Field: The present invention relates to a process for the production of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process for catalytically reforming a feed mixture of carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and hydrocarbon to form a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
Background: The catalytic reforming of methane and other light hydrocarbons with steam to produce mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide are well established commercial processes.
A modification ... by the addition of carbon dioxide (has been described). The advantage (being) that the hydrogen to carbon monoxide ratio in the product gas can be controlled ... .
Similarly, processes which utilize ... coal tars ... and the like for the production of synthesis gas have been disclosed ... .
It would be very desirable to be able to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide in a wider molar range ... .
The process according to the present invention for the preparation of a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide comprises contacting a feed mixture of carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and at least one hydrocarbon with a catalyst.
Summary: The applicants have unexpectedly discovered a process for the production of hydrogen and carbon monoxide by contacting a feed mixture of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and at least one hydrocarbon that dramatically increases the quantity of syngas prepared when compared to conventional steam reforming of methane and carbon dioxide.
It is ... important to describe the range if desirable feed gas molar ratios of compositions in terms of at least two components to hydrocarbon, one of these components being carbon dioxide.
Within the scope and range of the present invention the composition of the feed gas can vary widely depending on the desired product composition. The replacement of steam with hydrogen significantly increases the quantity of carbon monoxide and synthesis gas produced compared to ... feed gas containing only steam, hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide."
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We conclude our excerpts here since much of Eastman's exposition is devoted to graphs and tables illustrating the trade-offs of adding, or not adding, various proportions of free Hydrogen, as a replacement for some, or all, of the Steam, to the feed gas which is comprised, in essence, of a hydrocarbon, with Methane being specified by Eastman in several instances, and Carbon Dioxide.
We urge you, first, to note that, more than a dozen years ago, a group of knowledgeable scientists could write, with implied US Government approval, that methods for the "catalytic reforming of methane and other light hydrocarbons with steam to produce mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide are well established commercial processes", and, that "the addition of carbon dioxide" to those processes had been "described" and documented.
We further note that some Carbon Dioxide is co-generated within, or is passed through, Eastman's syngas generation process.
Don't, however, be misled:
A close read of the specifics reveals that the amount of such co-produced CO2 is much, much less than the amount of CO2 included in, and consumed by reactions with, the original mix of feed gases.
There is a significant net reduction.
In any case, if free Hydrogen is, for some reason, deemed too expensive to make, even in comparison to the costs of some other Carbon Dioxide "management" schemes, such as the disguised Cap & Trade taxation of our Coal-based industries and their customers; or, their enslavement into the service of Big Oil's secondary petroleum scrounging in nearly-depleted oil fields through mandated Geologic Sequestration, then, we can simply use Steam, instead.
And, once again, we remind you, as we have in many previous reports documented:
Since Methane is primary among the hydrocarbons specified by Eastman as a reactant for the reclaimed Carbon Dioxide, please keep in mind that we can synthesize Methane, via the 1912 Nobel-winning Sabatier process now being readied for use by NASA on the planet Mars, from Carbon Dioxide.
Or, we can generate Methane via long-known processes for the Steam-, or Hydro-, gasification of Coal.
Again, we must note that, even though some Carbon Dioxide is co-generated along with the hydrocarbon synthesis gas in Eastman's process technology, enough CO2 from other sources is consumed as an initial raw material so that there is a net CO2 reduction.
And, that net reduction in Carbon Dioxide is accomplished within an industrial process that could be sited anywhere in the nation; and, which process leads to the manufacture of a synthesis gas which can be specifically designed for catalytic condensation into a range of valuable products, including Methanol and Gasoline-range hydrocarbons.