Without further citation, we submit that one of the two inventors named in the United States Patent we discuss herein, Paul Witt, is a native of Dunbar, WV, who, according to web-based resources, is now employed by Dow Chemical.
At the time the technology disclosed by this patent was being developed, Witt was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, studying under the tutelage of Professor Lanny Schmidt, Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.
Professor Schmidt is an accomplished chemist, so noted that there is even an article of impressive length concerning him and his achievements available in the omniscient Wikipedia, as per:
Lanny D. Schmidt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
And, in confirmation of now-extensive documentation of the fact we have already submitted, we see herein that Schmidt and Witt further refined the technology base which enables not only the reaction of Methane with Carbon Dioxide and/or Water, to form a hydrocarbon synthesis gas, but which allows, again as demonstrated by other researchers we've cited for you to be feasible, for the adjustment in the ratios of Carbon Dioxide and Water added to the Methane over a fairly broad range, thus enabling production of synthesis gas "tailored" in compostion for catalytic condensation into different and specific hydrocarbons.
Keep in mind, again, as you review our excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch, that the Methane needed by the disclosed process can itself, as we have many times documented for you, be synthesized via the Steam-, or Hydro-, gasification of Coal; or, via the Nobel-winning Sabatier technology now being further refined and developed by NASA, from Carbon Dioxide itself.
Brief comment follows excerpts from:
"United States Patent 6,254,807 - Control of H2 and CO Produced in Partial Oxidation Process
Date: July, 2001
Inventors: Lanny Schmidt, Minneapolis, and Paul Witt, Dunbar, WV
Abstract: A process for enhancing H2 or CO production in a partial oxidation reaction by feeding H2O or CO2 with the feed hydrocarbon and oxygen over a transition metal monolith catalyst such as unsupported Ni monolith or alternatively contacting the hydrocarbon/oxygen first with a noble metal then with a transition metal with the H2O or CO2 being added before or after the noble metal catalyst. The addition of H2O suppresses CO and enhances H2 production and the addition of CO2 suppresses H2 and enhances CO production. Little steam or CO2 reforming occurs with the addition of up to 32% H2O or CO2 respectively. Thus, the ratio of H2 :CO which is about 2 in a conventional partial oxidation is manipulated by the addition of either water or CO2 to the partial oxidation.
The invention was made with government support under DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-88ER13878-A02. The government has certain rights in the invention.
(Which rights, apparently, don't extend to letting us Coal Country US citizens know about it.)
Claims: A process for controlling the H2 and CO concentrations produced in a hydrocarbon partial oxidation process ... .
Background and Field: The present invention relates to a process and apparatus for production of H2 or CO by the partial oxidation of hydrocarbons, preferably methane.
In particular the partial oxidation is carried out in the presence of water or carbon dioxide.
In ... conventional partial oxidations, methane ... is converted to high purity H2 and CO with a mole ratio of H2:CO (in) the desired feed ratio for methanol and Fischer-Tropsch plants. However, many other applications require different ratios of H2:CO.
Summary: Briefly, the present invention is a process for the partial oxidation of hydrocarbons such as methane ... by contacting a feed containing the hydrocarbon and oxygen and H2O or CO2 through a catalyst zone containing a catalytically effective amount of at least one transition metal monolith catalyst under partial oxidation conditions. A preferred monolith catalyst is a nickel metal monolith. When H2O is fed, the product shifts toward the H2 and when CO2 is present the product shifts toward CO, thus the presence of either water or CO2 provides the means to adjust the H2 :CO ratio, preferably in the range of more than about 2 to about 6 when water is added and in the range of less than about 2 to about 0.5 when CO2 is added.
Because partial oxidation reactions are exothermic, it is not necessary to add external heat to the system other than to obtain ignition of the catalyst."
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So, we don't need to add any energy, with it's attendant cost, to the process after we jump-start it.
And, to be clear: A synthesis gas is being made herein from Methane, Carbon Dioxide and/or Water, which syngas can be designed for use, as above, either in the synthesis of Methanol, or, via the Fischer-Tropsch technology, in the catalytic condensation, we submit, of Diesel and Gasoline-range hydrocarbon liquids.
And, yet again: We can make the Methane needed by this process to recycle Carbon Dioxide in the generation of such valuable products, as we have thoroughly documented for you, either from Coal, or, from Carbon Dioxide itself.