Since today, via separate dispatch, we are sending along report of: "United States Patent: 4022810 - Methane Synthesis Catalyst", which was awarded, in 1977, to Pittsburgh-area Gulf Oil scientists, for a technology wherein mixtures of Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide, or, just Carbon Dioxide, as they specify, alone, as "derived from the gasification of coal", can be converted into Methane, we wanted to again confirm that Methane, once we have it, can be reacted with even more Carbon Dioxide, and made thereby to generate even more hydrocarbon synthesis gas.
This example of bi-reforming and tri-reforming Carbon Dioxide recycling technology comes from Japan. And, it confirms earlier reports we've made concerning such technology, which originated, as we've documented, within the petroleum industry shortly after WWII; and, development of which, in the United States, continues at a number of institutions, including, as we've many times referenced, Penn State University.
Herein, we see that Japan, with US Government Patent Office affirmation of the fact, demonstrates, yet again, that Methane, once we have it, either generated as in the process of United States Patent: 4022810; or, synthesized directly from Carbon Dioxide itself, via the 1912 Nobel-winning Sabatier technique, can be efficiently reacted with more Carbon Dioxide, from whatever source; thereby converting both gases into a liquid hydrocarbon synthesis gas.
As in our excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch, with further explanatory comment appended, including some information about the corporate owner of the invention, to:
"United States Patent 6,340,437 - Preparing Synthesis Gas by Autothermal Reforming
Date: January, 2002
Inventor: Fuyuki Yagi, et. al., Japan
Assignee: Chiyoda Corporation, Japan
Abstract: Disclosed is a process for producing a synthesis gas by an autothermal reforming method including a step of partially oxidizing a carbon-containing organic compound to produce a high temperature mixed gas, and a synthesis producing step of reacting the unreacted carbon-containing organic compound contained in the high temperature mixed gas with carbon dioxide and/or steam, wherein a catalyst having a considerably suppressed carbon deposition activity is used as a catalyst for the synthesis gas producing step.
(Note: As you will see, the "unreacted carbon-containing organic compound" is Methane.)
Claims: A process for producing a synthesis gas from a carbon-containing organic compound, wherein the carbon-containing organic compound is ... reacted with steam and carbon dioxide ... .
(And) wherein said carbon-containing organic compound is natural gas.
Field and Background: A synthesis gas is a mixed gas containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide and is widely used as a raw material for the synthesis of ... methanol ... .
Such a synthesis gas may be produced by reaction of a carbon-containing organic compound with steam and/or carbon dioxide in the presence of a catalyst.
(The) reaction resulting in the formation of such a synthesis gas is very highly exothermic ... .
A process for the production of a synthesis gas including partial oxidation of a carbon-containing organic compound is carried out by partially oxidizing the carbon-containing organic compound to obtain a high temperature mixed gas having a temperature of at least 600.degree. C. and containing an unreacted carbon-containing organic compound. The unreacted carbon-containing organic compound contained in the mixed gas is reacted with carbon dioxide and/or steam in the presence of a catalyst.
In this method, however, carbon deposition reactions occur as side reactions to cause carbon deposition, when the unreacted carbon-containing organic compound contained in the mixed gas is reacted with carbon dioxide and/or steam to form the synthesis gas. (However) it is possible to reduce the amount of the carbon deposition by increasing the feed amount of steam and carbon dioxide while reducing the reaction pressure.
Objects: (To) provide a process for the production of a synthesis gas which includes a step of partially oxidizing a carbon-containing organic compound and a step of reacting an unreacted carbon-containing organic compound contained in the thus obtained high temperature mixed gas with carbon dioxide and/or steam in a pressurized condition and which can solve a problem of carbon deposition.
In the present invention, a synthesis gas may be produced by reacting a carbon-containing organic compound with steam and/or carbon dioxide (and, as) the carbon-containing organic compound, ... methane is preferred."
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That should be plain enough: We can react "steam and/or carbon dioxide" with "methane", and thereby generate a hydrocarbon synthesis gas suitable for catalytic condensation, as specified, into "methanol".
To belabor some points:
As noted above, we can manufacture Methane either from Coal, as in the process of United States Patent: 4022810; or, from Carbon Dioxide, via the 1912 Sabatier process now being further developed - as we've documented, in order to synthesize rocket fuel on the planet Mars out of the primarily Carbon Dioxide atmosphere there - by NASA.
And, the "methanol" which can, as herein, be synthesized by reacting "carbon dioxide ... (and) ... methane", both of which we can also make from Coal, can then, we remind you, be further converted, via, for one example, ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r) process, into Gasoline.
Finally, note that this is an "Autothermal Reforming" process. Little or no energy from external sources needs to be supplied, as it is all provided by exothermic chemical reactions within the total system.
PS: Finally, to further confirm the bona fides of this technology's originator, who are likely unfamiliar to our North American readers, we provide the following links and excerpts:
Corporate Profile | About Chiyoda | CHIYODA CORPORATION; "Employees: 1,281 people as of March 31, 2010; Integrated Contractor, mainly to the hydrocarbon and chemical industries. Established: 1948."
Chiyoda Corporation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; "Chiyoda ... is a large Japanese engineering company specializing in industrial facilities, particularly oil refineres."