As the very succinct Abstract of the United States Patent we enclose in this report puts it, disclosed herein is, simply, a "process for reacting carbon monoxide with water".
While that might not, at first glance, seem all that intriguing, the full Disclosure reveals that the products of such a "process" include "aliphatic and aromatic compounds boiling in the gasoline range".
And, should you wonder where we might obtain the needed Carbon Monoxide, we remind you of one recent report, available as:
More Pre-WWII CO2 Recycling | Research & Development | News; wherein is detailed:
"United States Patent 2,128,262 - Carbon monoxide manufacture;1938"; which confirms that "substantially pure" Carbon Monoxide can be manufactured by the simple expedient of passing Carbon Dioxide, recovered, perhaps, from the waste gasses of a Corn Ethanol fermentation and distillation facility, through red-hot Coal.
Or, should we wish to conserve our precious and vital Coal resources for critical power generation purposes well into the future, we can simply harness environmental energy to directly split Carbon Dioxide - recovered, perhaps, by way of another example, from the Perrier-type effervescence of a facility extracting "green" energy from natural water heated by a geothermal, volcanic source - into Carbon Monoxide, by using renewable, environmental energy.
As demonstrated, for just one instance, in another of our more recent reports, accessible via:
USDOE Recycles CO2 to Methanol with Solar Power | Research & Development | News; wherein is revealed:
"United States Patent: 6066187 - Solar Reduction of CO2; 2000; a technical process which "permits the use of sunlight to photolyze CO2" into Carbon Monoxide.
All of that said, following are excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch, wherein some good ole' boys from Standard Oil, both of whom we have cited previously, reveal how we can convert such Carbon Monoxide, as can be obtained by recycling Carbon Dioxide, along with Water, into Gasoline:
"United States Patent 4,559,363 - Process for Reacting Carbon Monoxide and Water
Date: December, 1985
Inventors: Jeffrey Miller and Albert Hensley
Abstract: A process for reacting carbon monoxide and water in the presence of a cadmium-containing catalyst is disclosed.
Claims: A method for the production of hydrocarbons by reacting carbon monoxide and water ... in the presence of a catalyst composition consisting essentially of a cadmium component and a support material having acidic properties, wherein the cadmium component is in the form of the elemental metal, its oxide or salt or a combination thereof, and wherein the cadmium component is present at a concentration level in the range of from about 0.1 to about 20 weight percent, calculated as cadmium oxide and based on the weight of the catalyst.
(And) wherein the mole ratio of carbon monoxide-to-water is in the range of from about 1:10 to about 10:1.
(And) wherein the cadmium component is in the form of cadmium oxide.
(And) wherein the support comprises a refractory inorganic oxide, ... or vermiculite clay ... .
(Note: Standard Oil further explains that the "support", upon which the cadmium catalyst is to be deposited, is a zeolite mineral, several of which - including the "ZSM-5" zeolite at the heart of ExxonMobil's "MTG"(r), methanol-to-gasoline, process, wherein the Methanol is posited to be made from Coal - are specified.)
Field and Objects: This invention relates generally to the reaction between carbon monoxide and water, and more particularly concerns such reaction in the presence of a cadmium-containing catalyst.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide a method for the direct production of gasoline."
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And, again: Such "direct production of gasoline" can be accomplished by utilizing Carbon Monoxide generated, via one straightforward processing step, from Carbon Dioxide, which can be obtained, for example, from a power generation plant's exhaust stream, in combination with plain ole' Water that is likely, in any case, to be flowing in generous quantities in a major river, like the Ohio, past such a power generation plant, in a reaction catalyzed by fairly common, non-exotic metals and minerals.
CO2, thus, as viewed in the combined contexts of United States Patent: 4559363 and, for one example, United States Patent: 6066187, as it arises in a very small way, relative to natural sources of emission, such as volcanoes, from our varied and productive uses of Coal, is a valuable raw material resource.
We can convert CO2 into Carbon Monoxide, and, through Carbon Monoxide, into Gasoline.
And we have, as herein officially, known all of that to be true now for fully one-quarter of a century.