United States Patent Application: 0090277441
In our report: USDOE Recycles CO2 to Methanol with Solar Power | Research & Development | News; we made disclosure of: United States Patent: 6066187 - "Solar Reduction of CO2; 2000; Reed Jensen, et. al.; Abstract: The red shift of the absorption spectrum of CO2 with increasing temperature permits the use of sunlight to photolyze CO2 to CO. The ... product CO may be used to ... to synthesize methanol. This invention was made with government support ... (from) the U.S. Department of Energy to The Regents of the University of California. The government has certain rights in the invention."
The lead named inventor, Reed Jensen, as we noted in that report, is a scientist who seems to be employed at the USDOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, either by the USDOE, or, by the University of California, who have management responsibilities at the Livermore Lab; and who, thus, seem to share in rights to the invention, along with the US Government.
In any case, we indicated in the report that there existed some supplemental information concerning that Carbon Dioxide recycling technology, which we believe to be what the USDOE has code-named as their "Green Freedom"(TM) process.
Herein, via the initial and following links in this dispatch, we record some of that information, which comes to us in the form of US Patent applications, with Reed Jensen named as the lead inventor, for technologies directly related to the use of Solar energy to break down and recycle Carbon Dioxide. We believe the two US Patent Applications we enclose in this report represent component technologies, or subsystems within, the overall "Green Freedom"(TM) process itself.
As made apparent, we think, in our excerpts from those two links, as follows:
"US Patent Application 20090277441 - Heat Exchanger for Use with Solar Gas Processors
Date: November, 2009
Inventor: Reed Jensen
Abstract: An apparatus and method for solar energy powered gas processing. There is disclosed a processor assembly for use in heating a process or feed gas by means of a convective heat exchanger which receives solar energy from a focused solar energy collector. A specialized heat exchanger is described, which maximizes the area upon which solar energy can radiate, as well as the available area for heat transfer to the flowing gas. Various modes for operating the processor assembly are described. The apparatus and method may be utilized to heat a gas to drive a heat engine. The apparatus and method also may be used to heat feed gasses to drive a gas processing reaction, such as for steam methane reformation or a reverse water-gas shift (rWGS) reaction.
(If you have followed our posts thus far, you will recognize "steam methane reformation" as a process very productive of Hydrogen; and, the "reverse water-gas shift reaction" as one capable of, among other things, generating Carbon Monoxide from Carbon Dioxide. The two gasses are precisely what would be obtained from the Steam-gasification of Coal - a "synthesis gas", in other words, compositionally suited for Fischer-Tropsch, or other, catalytic condensation into liquid hydrocarbons.)
Background and Field: The present invention relates generally to systems for solar heating and processing of gases, particularly to heat exchangers for use in such systems, and more specifically to a heat exchanger for use in association with a solar energy collector, such as a focusing dish, to convert solar energy into thermal energy to process gases ... .
One of the most critical challenges confronting mankind is that of dwindling sources of non-renewable energy. Consequently, a wide variety of increasingly sophisticated and promising efforts have been, and are, made in the field of solar energy. Devices and methods for exploiting solar energy as a renewable resource fall into at least two general categories: those attempting to convert solar energy directly into end-use energy (such as photovoltaic electricity generation, and passive thermal heating of dwellings), and those seeking to harness solar energy as an intermediate energy source for processing feedstock into end-use fuels (e.g., methane).
The rWGS reaction (as above) ... may be exploited to generate CO from CO2. The CO may then be used as feedstock for further processing into useable fuels. For example, produced CO can be feed directly into a known Fischer-Tropsch synthesis system to generate synthetic fuels.
Summary: The present disclosure pertains to an apparatus and method for solar heating gases, such as to heat a ... gas for processing, for example for methane reformation or to drive a reverse water-gas shift. There is provided by the disclosure a processor by which a feed or process gas, which can be a gas relatively transparent to much of the solar spectrum, can be effectively heated by solar energy so that the hot gas can be harnessed ... in the production of useable fuels."
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Carbon Dioxide is, of course, such "a gas relatively transparent to much" but not all "of the solar spectrum". It is transparent to nearly all of the visible light "spectrum", and, thus, lets sunlight "in" during the day, but is much more opaque to the infrared, and invisible, segments of the light spectrum, which is the portion of the spectrum in which heat energy is radiated by bodies of matter, i.e., the sun-warmed Earth.
In any case, these California scientists invented the process to overcome that issue, and to thus enable the heating of CO2 by sunlight, so that it could be further processed "in the production of useable fuels".
And, the Disclosure of USP Application 20090277441 presents just the "Heat Exchanger" to be used in such a CO2-recycling "Solar Gas Processor".
The following, already-issued, US Patent reveals more of the details of just such a device, for use in which, we surmise, the technology of Application 20090277441 was specifically developed:
"United States Patent 7,140,181 - Reactor for Solar Processing of ... Transparent Gases
Date: November, 2006
Inventors: Reed Jensen, NM, et. al.
Abstract: Solar-powered reactor for processing of slightly absorbing and transparent gases. An obvious path to providing storable, renewable energy is through solar dissociation of gas molecules. These dissociation products are the precursors of modern liquid and gaseous fuels such as hydrogen and methanol/ethanol. An apparatus and method using a solar concentrator (such as a focusing trough or dish) directed at the receiving end of a reactor are disclosed. A range of designs of reactors for the dissociation of gases, both those that absorb slightly in the visible spectrum and those that are transparent in the visible and only absorb in the infrared, is described. For slightly-absorbing gases, a funnel-shaped reactor that preheats the gas and concentrates sunlight is the indicated embodiment.
A system for dissociating CO2 using the invention is described (and) heat from the hot stream of dissociated gas may also be used to produce electricity…
(So, after we have broken the CO2 down, using Solar heat energy, into hot Carbon Monoxide, CO, we can use the heat in that CO to generate electricity, before we utilize the CO itself in other processes, such as those explained in United States Patent: 6066187 and United States Patent Application: 0090277441, for the synthesis of liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Does anyone recall our long-ago exposition of the "synergies" that were available to us in various known Coal conversion and CO2 recycling technologies?)
Claims: A method for solar powered processing of a slightly-absorbing or transparent gas, comprising the steps of: passing the process gas through a reaction zone; concentrating incoming solar radiation in the reaction zone to drive an endothermic dissociation reaction in the process gas ... .
(And) wherein the process gas is CO2.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for ... the process of solar disassociation of molecules into fuel precursors.
A primary advantage of the present invention is that it provides secondary focusing of solar energy to realize the high intensity and high temperatures needed for disassociation processes, along with the necessary rapid cooling or quenching ... .
There is provided according to the invention a solar powered endothermic reactor apparatus for processing slightly-absorbing or transparent gases ... (which) ... results in ... photolysis and pyrolysis of CO2 to CO by concentrated solar light."
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So, we can use sunlight, and perhaps other environmental, Carbon-neutral energy to effect the conversion of Carbon Dioxide into Carbon Monoxide.
And, if you might be wondering what, precisely, we can do with such Carbon Monoxide, we call your attention, for just one example, to our report:
Standard Oil Carbon Monoxide + Water = Gasoline | Research & Development | News; documenting:
"United States Patent 4,559,363 - Process for Reacting Carbon Monoxide and Water, 1985"; wherein Standard Oil of Indiana scientists disclose their "process for reacting carbon monoxide and water in the presence of a cadmium-containing catalyst ... for the direct production of gasoline";
wherein it is explained how we can, once we have it, as produced from Carbon Dioxide via the USDOE processes disclosed in:
United States Patent Application: 0090277441 and United States Patent: 7140181; and, in further conceptual confirmation of United States Patent: 6066187;
convert such CO2-derived Carbon Monoxide, in combination with Water, into, as, variously, above: "gasoline", "methanol", "methane", and "other useable fuels"; and, along the way, we can, as in the full process of USP 7,140,181, also use that hot Carbon Monoxide "to produce electricity".
We note, without linkage, as well, that: The "methane", as above, once we have it, as herein co-produced, along with liquid hydrocarbon fuels, from the recycling of Carbon Dioxide, can then be utilized in various "reforming" technologies, such as those explained best for us so far, as we've tediously documented, by Penn State University scientists, such as Chunsan Song and Craig Grimes, and made therein to react with, and to recycle, even more Carbon Dioxide in the synthesis, again, of even more liquid hydrocarbons
Seriously:
We know that our editorial comments aren't, in some quarters, greeted with much enthusiasm, and often aren't reproduced in the posts as they appear in the West Virginia Coal Association's web site; but,
We have to ask:
Just how much more developed and advanced do the, as herein, and as in other of our reports, technologies for reclaiming Carbon Dioxide and then using environmental energy to recycle it in the production of such seemingly-needed things as "gasoline", "methanol", and "methane", have to get, really, before we can put nonsense like Cap & Trade taxation and mandated Geologic Sequestration for secondary petroleum recovery behind us, and simply get on with the task of making our United States of America fully independent in it's supply of liquid hydrocarbon fuels through the conversion of our abundant Coal and the productive recycling, as documented herein, of Carbon Dioxide?