United States Patent Application: 0090194408
As we've many times documented, a number of nations around the world have been at work developing technologies which would enable us to treat Carbon Dioxide as a raw material resource, from which we can manufacture all sorts of organic compounds, including hydrocarbon fuels.
Among those nations is a one-time staunch ally of the US, who we ultimately abandoned to the tender mercies of one of our international competitors.
Herein, we see that Taiwan has continued their work on Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies, even to the point of applying for a US Patent on one of them.
And, their achievements herein echo similar CO2 utilization processes being developed in other countries, some of which we have already documented for you, as we point out in comments following excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"US Patent Application 20090194408A1 - Conversion of Carbon Dioxide into Useful Organic Products
Date: August, 2009
Inventors: Arnold Chang-Mou Yang, et. al., Taiwan
Abstract: The present invention provides a plasma method for conversion of carbon dioxide into useful organic products. In this method, carbon dioxide and counterpart molecules are mixed in a reaction chamber and the plasma excitation is utilized to trigger chemical reactions. Depending on the magnitude of the input power and molecular structures of counterparts, the final product may be polymers, oligomers, or low molecular weight small molecules. The conversion yields of carbon dioxide and chemical structures of the resulting products are strongly dependent on the selection of the counterpart molecules.
Through this plasma technology, carbon dioxide is converted into useful materials such as plastics or fuels.
Claims: A method of conversion of carbon dioxide into organic products using plasma technology (which comprises) providing a reaction chamber, introducing a counterpart molecule and carbon dioxide into the reaction chamber, and initiating a plasma in the reaction chamber wherein the counterpart molecule and carbon dioxide will react to form an organic product.
(And) wherein the counterpart molecule can be a water molecule.
The method of conversion of carbon dioxide into organic products using plasma technology ... wherein the plasma can be low pressure plasma ... electron beam discharge, corona discharge or dielectric discharge.
The reduction technology of carbon dioxide currently can be divided into two methods, physics-based and chemistry-based. For physics-based methods, carbon dioxide is captured from atmosphere and then stored underground or under the sea bed using high pressure compression. From the viewpoint of equilibrium and cycling of carbon dioxide on earth, the amount of carbon dioxide has not been reduced; hence, the use of chemistry-based methods to convert carbon dioxide into useful materials has become the core of carbon dioxide reduction technology.
(In other words, Carbon sequestration is not true Carbon reduction.)
(Herein) a plasma-based technology is presented for carbon dioxide conversions. When molecules enter into electric fields, they are excited and ionized by collision with accelerated electrons to generate various species such as atoms, electrons, ions, free radicals, etc. The mixture of these species is plasma. These activated species generated by plasma bombardments can recombine to form new products.
As compared to the complicated processes and steps in conventional chemical syntheses, the plasma process is simple and fast (and) mass production can be easily reached to satisfy economic efficiency in industries. Besides, since plasma can be initiated in a simple device, it can thus be miniaturized to apply in portable or mobile commercial products, which will be a great advantage for the plasma technology to be extended to more applications.
Summary: (An) objective of the present invention is to provide a plasma technology which can be used to activate carbon dioxide and trigger its reactions with counterpart molecules, and the resulting products can be small molecules, oligomers and polymers; in such technological conversion process of carbon dioxide, no catalyst or solvent needs to be used, and high pressure is also not needed to compress carbon dioxide gas; therefore, it has advantages such as: reactions can be carried out at room temperature, the reaction rate is fast, etc.; moreover, it can be used directly and effectively in the solving of global warming, energy and material insufficiency issues."
------------------
And, of course, our most pressing "material insufficiency issue" seems to be where we'll be getting our next barrel of oil.
Again, this technology echoes similar processes being developed in other places in the world, wherein a variously-described low-energy plasma arc discharge - which you can create a facsimile of by tossing a piece of aluminum foil into your microwave oven, it is about the same thing, and isn't much more complicated than that - is used to dissociate, or activate, molecules such as Carbon Dioxide and Water, and make their atomic components available for reaction and recombination into different, more desired, molecules.
Some examples of such similar processes can be learned of, via, for example:
Swiss US CO2-to-Fuel Patent | Research & Development | News; wherein is disclosed: "United States Patent 6375832 - Fuel Syntheis", an "invention" that enables the manufacture of "a normally liquid fuel" by the application of "a dielectric barrier discharge" to a mixture of CO2 and water vapor; and,
More Iran CO2 + Methane = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development | News; wherein is reported "Carbon Dioxide Reforming of Methane via DC Corona Streamer Discharge", which describes how Methane, which can itself be made from Carbon Dioxide via the 1912 Nobel-winning Sabatier process, from Carbon Dioxide, can be added to the reaction mix of CO2 and H2O, for activation and recombination by the influence of low-energy electrical discharges.
And, the validity of such technologies, demonstrating that - - rather than being a dangerous "greenhouse" pollutant that arises in a very small way, relative to natural and uncontrollable sources of emission, such as volcanoes, from our varied and productive uses of Coal - - Carbon Dioxide is a valuable raw material resource, is confirmed again herein by the island of Taiwan, in United States Patent Application: 0090194408.