Since we are, via separate dispatch today, sending along report of: United States Patent: 4077778; wherein Exxon discloses a process that can convert up to 99%, essentially all, of the Carbon content in Coal into Methane, we wanted, herein, to again confirm that Methane - once we have it, perhaps as efficiently synthesized, via the process of USP 4,077,778, from Coal - can be reacted, "reformed", with Carbon Dioxide, reclaimed from whatever source, in a reaction that converts both of those accused greenhouse culprits into valuable liquid hydrocarbons.
Of additional interest might be the fact that such seemingly-valuable knowledge was established in Pittsburgh, PA, in the very early days of our US involvement in WWII.
Comment follows excerpts from the enclosed link to:
"United States Patent 2,266,989 - Manufacture of a Gas from CO2 and Methane
Date: December 23, 1941
Inventor: Max Radtke, Germany
Assignee: Koppers Company, Pittsburgh, PA
Abstract: The present invention relates to the manufacture of gases suitable for the synthesis of higher hydrocarbons or the like, said gases containing definite volumes of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in a certain proportion, by reacting on methane ... with carbon dioxide or a mixture of carbon dioxide and steam, so that the methane ... is decomposed into hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
(As the full Disclosure reveals, not only is the Methane being "decomposed", so is the CO2.)
Now, the object of my present invention is to develop an improved method and means for producing a gas suitable for the synthesis of hydrocarbons ... from methane ... without using carbon from other sources, for instance, coal ... .
(Nope. King Coal isn't really needed herein; but, as you will see, his friendly ghost, CO2, is. )
The process according to the invention consists in ... heating up the methane ... in the presence of carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide and steam (and) for adding an adjustable quantity of the carbon dioxide to the gas heater while introducing the methane ... .
(Note: Though not well-reflected in our excerpts, the full Disclosure reveals that the Methane, and, almost of course, the Steam, are to be pre-heated before mixing with the Carbon Dioxide. And, such heating, the Disclosure seems to suppose, will involve the generation of CO2 through the combustion of fuel. That CO2 is directed to be reclaimed and recycled into the process along with, presumably, CO2 collected from external sources. Left un-addressed are the potentials to effect such needed pre-heating through the employment of environmentally-derived energy, i.e., Solar or Hydro, with the resulting avoidance of needing to use CO2 from the system itself, and the consequent increase in the amount of CO2 that could be imported, say, from a Coal-fired power plant exhaust scrubber.)
In order to obtain a gas in the proportion of one volume carbon monoxide to one volume hydrogen, the methane according to the present invention is converted ... by the use of carbon dioxide principally in accordance with the ... reaction: CH4 + CO2 = 2CO + H2.
(Such a product gas mixture) is especially suitable for the synthesis of hydrocarbons ... .
For the production of a gas which contains carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the proportion of 1:2 the methane is converted by using carbon dioxide and steam (as in): 3CH4 + CO2 + 2H2O = 4CO + 8H2.
(We note that the second equation represents a "tri-reforming" reaction, such as explained best for us so far, as we've many times documented, by scientists, such as Chunsan Song and Craig Grimes, at Penn State University. The first one represents a "bi-reforming" reaction, such as explained, for just one instance, in our earlier report of a West Virginia University Masters Thesis completed by Mahesh V. Iyer.)
Furthermore a synthesis gas can be made in which the proportion of carbon monoxide to hydrogen varies from one to one to one to two. The desired alteration of gas composition is attained by (adjusting the quantities of added) steam.
(In confirmation of other of our earlier reports, a variable-composition synthesis gas can be manufactured from Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Water, with the component ratios being varied in accordance with the desired final hydrocarbon product.)
The reactions between methane and carbon dioxide or methane and a mixture consisting of carbonic acid and steam, as adopted for the process according to the present invention are already known, but heretofore these reactions have not yet been used on an industrial scale, mainly due to the fact that up to now no suitable source for the carbon dioxide ... was available."
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We close our excerpts right there.
Could it really be possible that, since 1941, we haven't been reacting Methane with Carbon Dioxide, using "already known" technology to make "a gas suitable for the synthesis of hydrocarbons", because we had "no suitable source for the carbon dioxide"?
Perhaps that is why we haven't been making the Methane required herein, out of Carbon Dioxide, via the 1912 Nobel-winning Sabatier process, either.
But, all of those Big Oil companies, with all of their leaky, nearly-depleted natural petroleum reservoirs, which they want to exploit, via secondary recovery techniques, by using Carbon Dioxide we Coal Country rubes might be forced, by Cap & Trade taxation and Geologic Sequestration laws, to, all at our Coal Country expense, supply them, sure think that there, somewhere, must be at least one "suitable source for carbon dioxide".
If there is, however, as implied herein, a shortage of CO2, and we don't have enough to make the Methane, via the Sabatier reaction now being, as we've documented, readied by NASA for use on the planet Mars, which we would then want to react with even more Carbon Dioxide, in the process of US Patent 2,266,989, then we can, as we noted above in our introductory comments concerning:
"United States Patent: 4077778 - Process for the Catalytic Gasification of Coal";
efficiently synthesize all of the Methane we might want or need for such reactions out of our abundant Coal.