Herein is yet more evidence that we have, as a nation, known officially since at least as far back as WWII that Carbon Dioxide can be recycled into Gasoline.
The Standard Oil process disclosed by the US Patent we're sending along in this dispatch describes, in essence, variations of both "bi-reforming" and "tri-reforming" technologies, which we have explained several times previously; and, in which Carbon Dioxide is reacted with Methane, and/or with Steam, and made thereby to form a hydrocarbon synthesis gas which can, via one of several known processes, be catalytically condensed into liquid hydrocarbons.
In fact, there is record of, actually, rather numerous similar technologies having been developed before, during, and immediately after WWII, as evidenced in part by just a few of our previous reports, i.e.:
Pittsburgh 1941 CO2 + Methane = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development | News; and,
More Standard Oil 1950 CO2 + CH4 + H2O = Syngas | Research & Development | News.
However, the full Disclosure of the patent we enclose herein, as in many older US patents, is quite dense, wordy and obtuse; and, it takes some effort to sort out the juicy bits.
That is especially so since it isn't just Carbon Dioxide and Methane that are being processed herein, but, a variety of materials, including petroleum derivatives and syngas conversion residues, which are all being reduced together into a hydrocarbon synthesis gas intended for, as specified, Fischer-Tropsch conversion into hydrocarbon liquids.
First, though, again, Methane can be utilized in this Standard Oil process, apparently with or without Steam, to break down Carbon Dioxide, and some heavier hydrocarbons, as explained, into the components of synthesis gas. And, we take this opportunity to remind you that any needed Methane can be synthesized, as seen in, for example:
Pittsburgh USDOE Converts CO2 to Methane & Methanol | Research & Development | News; from Carbon Dioxide itself; or, as in:
Exxon 1981 Coal to "High-Quality Liquids" and Methane | Research & Development | News; from Coal.
We include the two foregoing examples, out of the many others similar now recorded by the West Virginia Coal Association, since the Methane is actually being generated in the processes described in those reports only as a by-product, along with liquid hydrocarbon fuels that are being synthesized from both Coal and Carbon Dioxide; and, the cost of production assigned to such co-product Methane might, as a result, be rather low.
We think those examples to be somewhat appropriate since they help to reflect how such a by-product, i.e., Methane, of converting Coal and/or Carbon Dioxide into liquid fuels, can then be, via the process of the US Patent we submit in this dispatch, reacted with a by-product, i.e., Carbon Dioxide, of generating electricity from Coal, and made thereby to form, as you will see, "high-quality gasoline".
However, Standard Oil discloses both what should be an interesting source of by-product Carbon Dioxide, and, how heavier hydrocarbon by-products of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis can be recycled into and used within the process, as seen, with some additional comment inserted and appended, in the following excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"United States Patent 2,360,463 - Hydrocarbon Conversion
Date: October, 1944
Inventor: Maurice H. Arveson, Illinois
Assignee: Standard Oil Company, Chicago
Abstract: This invention relates to the conversion of hydrocarbons into useful products and particularly into high quality gasolines and still more particularly aviation gasolines. The invention relates especially to the conversion of methane into heavier high quality hydrocarbon products.
Processes have heretofore been known for the conversion of methane into heavier hydrocarbons and the conversion of methane to carbon monoxide and hydrogen followed by the Fischer synthesis is an outstanding instance of this.
I have provided a combination process in which methane ... can be processed by steps including the Fischer synthesis and other operations to produce a highly superior product in very high yields.
One of the objects of my invention is to provide a more efficient method for the utilization of methane and in particular for the conversion of methane into high yields of motor fuels of unusually good quality.
It is a more particular object of my invention to provide for the conversion of methane into so-called aviation super fuels.
It is also an object of my invention to convert hydrocarbons produced in the Fischer process into products rich in branched chain and/or aromatic hydrocarbons.
A still further object of my invention is to (make) possible the utilization of low-grade by-products from one step for the production of high quality motor fuels or motor fuel components in another step.
(Arveson is referring, above, to the "Fischer-Tropsch Wax" which can, as we have several times reported, be deposited on catalysts used to condense Coal-derived synthesis gas into liquid hydrocarbons. And, we remind you that we have previously documented, as in one report:
USDOE Pays Mobil Oil to Refine CoalTL Wax | Research & Development | News; wherein is disclosed:
"United States Patent 4,684,756 - Process for Upgrading Wax from Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis; 1987; Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation, NY";
how such "CoalTL wax", i.e., the heavier "hydrocarbons produced in the Fischer process", can be further refined, or, as Arveson seems to indicate, recycled back into the syngas generation process itself, and made thereby to contribute to the synthesis of additional hydrocarbons.)
Since my invention in certain of it's forms relates primarily to the processing of products resulting from the Fischer synthesis, it will be apparent that the hydrocarbons used to supply the synthesis gas can come from still other sources such as ... methane (and) from coal and water.
(Within the process of my invention) carbon dioxide plays a part (and) results in an increase in the ratio of carbon monoxide to hydrogen.
(So productive of Hydrogen, from reactions between Methane and Steam, is Arveson's process, that Carbon Dioxide can be added, as in other, similar technologies we have reported, to adjust "the ratio of carbon monoxide to hydrogen" produced by the syngas generation procedures.)
In any event the composition of the synthesis gas ... is adjusted by controlling the amount of carbon dioxide introduced, ... or by controlling the amount of hydrogen introduced, ... or by still other means, in order to bring the ratio of carbon monoxide to hydrogen to the optimum desired (for) the synthesis of heavier hydrocarbons in the Fischer synthesis.
Steam thus generated (as a reaction by-product) can be used in the synthesis gas manufacture ... ."
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We close our excerpts here, both since the full Disclosure is lengthy and complex in the extreme and since it seems focused, primarily, on the processing of a CO2-contaminated Methane mixture produced as the unwanted by-product off gas from an oil well.
Keep in mind, and we're certain anyone over the age of 50 who's traveled while young through an oil producing area observed it, that such oil well off gas was often just vented to the atmosphere and "flared".
And we must note, again, as above, that "coal and water" can also be made "to supply the synthesis gas".
Further, as indicated in our introductory comments, but not well-illustrated in our excerpts, a close read of the full Disclosure also seems to reveal that the inventor is suggesting that Carbon Dioxide recovered as a waste gas from other, more conventional petroleum refining processes can be imported into this system and utilized.
In sum, though, it does spell out the processes by which a mix of Methane, Carbon Dioxide and Steam can be reacted together, and made thereby to form a synthesis gas that, ultimately, can be catalytically condensed into "high quality hydrocarbon products", including, as specified, "aviation super fuels".