We've cited the Pittsburgh-area Gulf Oil scientists named as the inventors in this US patent previously.
However, since we are, via separate dispatch, today sending you yet more information, originating in Japan, via our report of: "United States Patent: 6340437 - Preparing Synthesis Gas By Autothermal Reforming",
concerning the plain fact that Carbon Dioxide can be reacted with Methane, and thereby be made to form a hydrocarbon syngas suitable for catalytic condensation into liquid fuels and other valuable chemical products, we wanted to again affirm that Methane, which can thus be used to recycle Carbon Dioxide, can be readily manufactured via the gasification of Coal.
As Gulf Oil, since assimilated by Chevron, herein, with US Government certification of the fact, explains their Coal-to-Methane process, however, yet another important fact is revealed, which is:
Carbon Dioxide can be made to react efficiently with Hydrogen - derived, we submit, from whatever convenient source - and converted, via a Sabatier-type reaction, into Methane.
In Gulf's technology herein, Methane is synthesized from Coal via the intermediaries of both Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide, both as found in syngas manufactured by the partial oxidation of Coal.
Additional comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 4,022,810 - Methane Synthesis Catalyst
Date: May, 1977
Inventors: Thaddeus Kobylinski and Harold Swift, PA
Assignee: Gulf Research and Development Company, Pittsburgh
Abstract: The conversion of carbon monoxide and hydrogen to produce methane is catalyzed by a layered complex metal silicate composition ... .
Claims: A process for the production of methane which comprises: contacting a charge stock comprising hydrogen and at least one carbon oxide selected from the group consisting of CO and CO2 wherein the molar ratio of hydrogen to combined carbon oxides is at least 2:1 under methanation conditions with a catalyst comprising a metal silicate ... .
(And) wherein the molar ratio of hydrogen to combined carbon oxides in the charge stock is from 2:1 to 4:1.
(And) wherein the charge stock is derived from the gasification of coal.
Background and Summary: Thus, in accordance with the invention, an improved process has been discovered for the production of methane which comprises contacting a charge stock comprising hydrogen and at least one carbon oxide selected from the group consisting of CO and CO2 wherein the molar ratio of hydrogen to combined carbon oxides is at least 2:1 under methanation conditions with a (specified) catalyst.
(A) charge consisting essentially of CO2 can be employed if desired."
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We'll close our excerpts here since it seems time to ask a stupid question, or two:
If, as in our excerpts, we can manufacture Methane from a "charge consisting essentially of" nothing but "CO2", with added Hydrogen, then why would we deliberately oxidize Coal just to make it?
We are already oxidizing Coal to efficiently and productively generate the electricity we need to keep our lights on, so, why couldn't the CO2-containing exhaust gases from those endeavors be used in Gulf Oil's process to manufacture Methane?
Yes, some addition of externally-supplied Hydrogen might well be required; and, as we have several times documented for you, Hydrogen can be efficiently extracted, through the harnessing of environmental energy, from Water.
And: From the costs of such Hydrogen production must be deducted, first, the avoided costs otherwise mandated by Cap & Trade taxation and Geologic Sequestration oil industry subsidization, and, then, the return on investment when the hydrocarbon fuels made by recycling the Carbon Dioxide are sold.
In any case, Methane, as herein made by Gulf Oil, through the intermediaries of Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide, from Coal, can itself, as we have earlier documented, be directly condensed via catalytic reactions into liquid hydrocarbons, or, as in the process of United States Patent: 6340437, as noted above, be reacted with more CO2 and made thereby to synthesize even more liquid hydrocarbon fuels.