Method of making a synthesis gas mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen
We have already cited the old M.W. Kellogg Company, formerly of New York but now a component of the Texas-based oil industry services company, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), numerous times.
Decades ago, they applied themselves, with apparently great success, to the development of various Carbon conversion technologies, processes which, if implemented, would have enabled the production of liquid hydrocarbon petroleum replacements from a variety of Carbon resources.
Herein, via the enclosed link, we see that, even before we were drawn into direct participation in WWII by the attack at Pearl Harbor, M.W. Kellogg scientists in New York and New Jersey, at least one of whom we have cited for you previously, developed an earlier version of what we must designate as "tri-reforming" Carbon Dioxide recycling technology, such as explained and described more lately by scientists, such as Chunsan Song and Craig Grimes, as we've many times documented, at Penn State University.
In tri-reforming processes, Carbon Dioxide is made to react with both Methane and Steam, and to thereby form a synthesis gas suitable for catalytic condensation into a variety of liquid hydrocarbons.
Prior to our excerpts from the enclosed link, we remind you that the needed Methane can be manufactured by long-known processes for the Steam-, or Hydro-, gasification of Coal; or, as in our earlier report, for just one example, of: Penn State Solar CO2 + H2O = Methane | Research & Development | News, wherein is detailed the "efficient solar conversion of carbon dioxide and water vapor to methane"; we can synthesize the needed Methane, using environmental energy, from Carbon Dioxide itself.
Brief comment, highlighting a "twist", follows excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"US Patent 2,198,553 - Making a Synthesis Gas Mixture of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen
Date: April, 1940
Inventor: George Roberts, et. al., NY and NJ
Assignee: The M.W. Kellogg Company, NY
Abstract: Our invention relates to a method of making synthesis gas and more particularly to a method of making a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide having a controllable ratio of hydrogen with respect to carbon monoxide from 1:1 to 3:1 by volume.
(As with other, closely related, technologies we have documented for you, the mix of reactants can be adjusted so that a synthesis gas of variable composition, and thus suitable for catalytic condensation into a selectable range of hydrocarbons, can be produced.)
Mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen are useful in synthesizing many organic compounds and these mixtures are known to the art as "synthesis gas".
Synthesis gas may be made from methane, steam and carbon dioxide ... .
Methane and carbon dioxide (alone, can) form a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen ... .
(And, methane) and steam will form a mixture of synthesis gas ... .
Any ratio of carbon monoxide and hydrogen may be obtained (within the defined) limits by varying the relative proportions of carbon dioxide and steam that are reacted with methane.
In this manner, we are able to control the relative proportions of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the synthesis gas being produced ... .
(We must interject herein to note that, although not reflected in our excerpts, Kellogg actually proposes making Carbon Dioxide, as one function of their total system, so that it can be used to react with Methane and Steam in their overall process for producing hydrocarbon synthesis gas. Since we know that we can separately make Methane via the Penn State process noted above, and/or the Nobel-winning Sabatier process now being further refined by NASA, all as we have documented, from Carbon Dioxide; and that we can, apparently, separately collect all of the Carbon Dioxide we might want for stuffing down depleted oil field rat holes in West Texas, we presume that external supplies of either wouldn't be a problem, and that we wouldn't, really, actually have to make CO2 specifically for the process. However, the process Kellogg specifies to make the CO2 also generates useful Hydrogen, so that is a consideration - even though, again as we've thoroughly documented, we can make all of the Hydrogen we might want by the Solar-assisted thermal splitting of Water.)
We have provided a simple, economical and expeditious manner of forming synthesis gas from hydrocarbon gases and steam as raw materials.
(As Kellogg specifies, both Methane and Carbon Dioxide are among those gases.)
Our operation is flexible and substantially continuous.
Claims: (A) method of producing a synthesis gas mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (from) a mixture of hydrocarbon gas, steam and carbon dioxide.
(And) wherein said hydrocarbon gas comprises largely methane."
---------------
We note again that Kellogg does identify other hydrocarbon gases, in addition to Methane, which could be utilized.
But, since Methane can be, as noted above, synthesized from Carbon Dioxide, or, as in our recent report of:
Exxon Converts 99% of Coal to Methane | Research & Development | News, "USPatent 4,077,778 - Process for the Catalytic Gasification of Coal; 1978; Assignee: Exxon"; from Coal, Methane would seem to qualify as a preferred choice.
Further, Kellogg specifies use of the water gas shift reactions to obtain some extra Hydrogen for use in the process. Such reactions also result in the formation of some Carbon Dioxide, which Kellogg proposes be recycled back into the process.
We suggest, that, in order to maximize the amount of externally-supplied Carbon Dioxide, from other sources, which could be imported into the process, any needed extra Hydrogen could, instead, be manufactured - - as in our report: Solar-Powered Hydrogen Generation | Research & Development | News; wherein is detailed: "USP 7,726,127 - Solar Power for Thermochemical Production of Hydrogen; 2010;
Abstract: A solar-powered hydrogen production system (wherein it is disclosed how) solar energy can be used to generate electricity that can be used to create hydrogen from water through electrolysis" - - from Water, using renewable energy to drive the reactions.
In any case, these New York and New Jersey scientists, in 1940, would also likely have been well aware of the fact, that the 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry had been awarded to Paul Sabatier, for demonstrating that Methane could, in any case, be synthesized from Carbon Dioxide.
In sum, prior to WWII, we knew, officially, in the United States, that there existed an "economical and expeditious" process, wherein Carbon Dioxide could be treated as a valuable raw material resource which could be reclaimed and then recycled, through interactions with Methane and Steam, in the manufacture of a hydrocarbon synthesis gas - - the final composition of which could be controlled and adjusted to make it suitable for catalytic condensation, as via the pre-WWII Fischer-Tropsch process, into a variable and selectable range of liquid hydrocarbon fuels.