United States Patent Application: 0100205856
In our recently-published report, posted as:
USDOE Recycles CO2 to Methanol with Solar Power | Research & Development | News; which concerns, primarily,United States Patent: 6066187 - "Solar Reduction of CO2", we not only made reference to additional, directly-related USDOE Carbon Dioxide technologies under development; but, as well, included an additional link,http://www.lanl.gov/news/newsbulletin/pdf/Green_Freedom_Overview.pdf; again documenting the USDOE's separate, but conceptually-related, development of their "Green Freedom"(TM) CO2-recycling technology, developed by other USDOE scientists at our Los Alamos, New Mexico, National Laboratory.
Herein, via the initial link in this dispatch, and following excerpts, we see that the Los Alamos scientists have applied for their own United States Patent, disclosing what we must presume to be the underlying technology for "Green Freedom"(TM).
Comment, including discussion of some unpleasant revelations in the full Disclosure, which won't be reflected in our excerpts, follows passages from:
"US Patent Application 20100205856 - Producing Fuels ... From Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Date: August, 2010
Inventors: William Kubic and Jeffrey Martin
Assignee: Los Alamos National Security, LLC, New Mexico
Abstract: The present invention is directed to providing a method of producing synthetic fuels and organic chemicals from atmospheric carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide gas is extracted from the atmosphere, hydrogen gas is obtained by splitting water, a mixture of the carbon dioxide gas and the hydrogen gas (synthesis gas) is generated, and the synthesis gas is converted into synthetic fuels and/or organic products.
Government Interests: This invention was made with government support under Contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25396 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The government has certain rights in the invention.
Claims: A method for producing a chemical product comprising the steps of:extracting carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere; producing hydrogen gas; combining said carbon dioxide gas and said hydrogen gas to produce a synthesis gas; and converting said synthesis gas to said product.
(And) wherein said method is powered by a power source selected from the group consisting of nuclear power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power, wind power, photovoltaic solar power, thermal solar power, and combinations thereof.
(And) wherein said product is selected from the group consisting of fuel, diesel fuel, jet fuel, gasoline, petrochemicals, plastics, butane, methanol, ethylene, propylene, aromatic compounds, petrochemical derivatives, derivatives thereof, and mixtures thereof.
(And) wherein said product further undergoes a process to convert said product to a fuel, wherein said process is selected from the group consisting of Synthesis Gas-to-Methanol, Methanol-to-Gasoline, Methanol-to-Olefins, Fischer Tropsch wax conversion, Fischer-Tropsch, and Fischer-Tropsch oil refining.
A method for producing synthetic gasoline comprising the steps of: absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere ...; producing hydrogen gas using a steam electrolysis process; combining said carbon dioxide gas with said hydrogen gas to produce a synthesis gas; converting said synthesis gas into methanol; and converting said methanol into synthetic gasoline.
(And) wherein said product (can also include) diesel fuel, jet fuel, gasoline, petrochemicals, plastics, butane, methanol, urea, ethylene, propylene, aromatic compounds, petrochemical derivatives, derivatives thereof, and mixtures thereof.
Background and Description: The transportation sector accounts for around 65% of the US petroleum consumption and the largest components of the transportation sector are gasoline and jet fuel. The US also depends on petroleum for petrochemicals, feedstocks, lubricants, solvents, and a variety of other uses. On average, about 20% of an oil barrel serves as the source of critical raw materials for the world's consumer goods. Shifting from a reliance on petroleum to electrical power cannot make up for the loss of fuel and raw materials that will result from declining petroleum availability.
Alternative fuel sources, such as hydrogen or other liquid fuels, cannot replace petroleum in all of its uses.
(And, drilling) for oil and its transportation exposes the environment to man-made hazards.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a process for producing fuel that is a carbon-neutral source of energy and minimizes environmental impact.
(Further,) it would be beneficial to provide a product that will replace petroleum but can yield the same or similar products as petroleum, is abundant, and relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture.
(And) it would (also) be beneficial to provide a process for producing fuel that is a carbon-neutral source of energy and minimizes environmental impact.
One possible replacement for petroleum-based transportation fuels is hydrogen gas. However, there are technical obstacles that must be overcome in order to utilize hydrogen as a safe and economical alternative.
(Remember the Hindenberg.)
Varieties of methods have been developed and are being developed for alternative fuels, however, there is a need for a process that produces fuels and organic chemicals that have the same or similar yields as natural resources and that are reliable, relatively cost-efficient, and have a low-impact on the environment.
One known process for producing synthetic fuel is the Fischer-Tropsch process and it is incorporated herein by reference. The Fischer-Tropsch process is a catalyzed chemical reaction in which carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide and hydrogen are converted into liquid hydrocarbons of various forms.
The principal purpose of this process is to produce a synthetic petroleum ... from coal ... for use as synthetic lubrication oil or as synthetic fuel.
The synthesis gas-to-synthetic methanol process is a widely known method for producing methanol. Methanol may be used as a useful product and may be converted by the Mobil Methanol-to-Gasoline process.
(The ExxonMobil "MTG"(r) process we frequently make reference to, wherein the Methanol is specified - by ExxonMobil, in the documents we've been able to track down - to be made from Coal.)
Several other processes are known in the art for converting hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide gas into fuels and organic chemicals, but it would be beneficial to provide a method of supplying the carbon dioxide gas and the hydrogen gas that is practical, reliable, and has a low-impact on the environment.
In one of many illustrative, non-limiting aspects of the present invention, there is provided a method for producing synthetic fuels and organic chemicals including extracting carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere, producing hydrogen gas, combining the extracted carbon dioxide gas and the produced hydrogen gas to produce a synthesis gas, and converting the synthesis gas to synthetic fuels and organic chemicals.
The method of the present invention is powered by a power source. Possible power sources include, but are not limited to, nuclear power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power, wind power, photovoltaic solar power, thermal solar power, and other appropriate power sources now known or hereafter developed. The use of a nuclear power plant is disclosed throughout but is just one example of how the process hereof can be powered. It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the power source may be any power source suitable for use in the method of the present invention."
-----------------
We close our excerpts here, since, throughout the full Disclosure, our USDOE insists on referencing the use of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl power to drive their process. Only in our final excerpted passage does this exposition of "Green Freedom"(TM) turn truly green.
That isn't too surprising in light of the identities of the companies who comprise the corporate entity who receives the rights to use, or not use, this CO2-recycling innovation paid for by our tax dollars.
The official "Assignee" of the patent rights, as above, is "Los Alamos National Security, LLC"; a consortium of private companies and semi-public entities who, as in a questionable move we earlier reported, relative to other of our vital National Laboratories, has been hired, with our tax money, to manage and direct the operations of our vital USDOE National Laboratories, and who, in addition, are then privileged to assume ownership of technical innovations our tax dollars paid our federal employees, our USDOE scientists, to develop in our National Laboratory facilities. .
Without linking to the readily-accessible sources we used to ascertain the facts, we report that "Los Alamos National Security, LLC", LANS, is actually comprised of the companies/entities: Bechtel National, University of California, Babcock and Wilcox Company and URS Energy & Construction, Incorporated. All of them were selected for membership in that fortunate little club since, as revealed in their own web site:
Los Alamos National Security, LLC; they:
"have extensive experience in nuclear defense programs (and) large-scale facilities management"; and, that:
"Maintaining the nation's nuclear stockpile is" their "most important job".
Further, one member of LANS, who might be less-than-familiar is "URS"; and, based on what we've been able to learn of them, via, for instance, their own web site: URS Corporation > About URS > History; we are forced to assert that they are another of the "skunk works" that seem to have grown hidden within the body of our government and society, more or less secretly serving some very special interests.
URS, specifically, became who they are, since they were first really established in 1951, and officially incorporated, in 1957, as "Broadview Research", by later acquiring United Research Incorporated of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
If those names don't ring any bells for you, that's most likely because it is, somewhere, desired that they don't. But, now, URS has nearly 50,000 employees working in more than 40 countries. And their clients, as they tell specifically, include, primarily:
"The U.S. federal government, national governments of other countries," and "state and local government agencies in the United States and internationally".
With apologies for the, to us, inescapable digression, we must return to and conclude with the plain fact that, herein, USDOE scientists in our employ have developed a technology that is specifically labeled as:
"Producing Fuels ... From Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide".
And, even though, because of their heritage, we suppose, the Los Alamos scientists insist on referencing nuclear power to drive the recycling of "Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide" into "Fuels", they do, in the end, confess that:
"hydroelectric power, geothermal power, wind power, photovoltaic solar power, thermal solar power, and other appropriate power sources", perhaps including waste heat recovered from a Coal-fired power plant's cooling towers, can be used to extract Carbon Dioxide "from the atmosphere"; to generate "hydrogen ... by splitting water"; and, to then combine the two gasses via known and herein specified processes, and, thereby, synthesize a wide variety of such needful things as "methanol (and) gasoline", as well as "diesel fuel, jet fuel, ... petrochemicals, plastics, butane, ... urea, ethylene, propylene, aromatic compounds, petrochemical derivatives, derivatives thereof, and mixtures thereof".
Again: We have plenty of potential "hydroelectric power and wind power", and, according to some elements of our non-local press, an overabundance of Carbon Dioxide, in US Coal Country.
Can't we, really, find something better to do with all of them than what we're doing now - and thereby free our vital Coal-use industries from punitive and crippling Cap & Trade taxation, and, free our nation from various forms of economic enslavement to the international corporate and governmental petroleum cartels?
Our own US Government, via United States Patent Application: 0100205856, says that we can.