In an earlier report: California Files CO2 Recycling Patents | Research & Development | News; we documented that the Nobel-winning scientist, George Olah, and his colleague at the University of Southern California, Surya Prakash, had made application for two United States Patents on technology which would enable us to convert Carbon Dioxide, through reactions with Methane, into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
Less than a month ago, one of those applications was approved; the validity of the technology confirmed.
And, our own US Government agreed that we could, in fact, convert Carbon Dioxide, reclaimed from whatever source, into the liquid hydrocarbon fuels, Methanol and Dimethyl Ether.
Comment follows excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"US Patent 7,906,559 - Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Methanol and/or Dimethyl Ether
Date: March 15, 2011
Inventors: George Olah and Surya Prakash, CA
Assignee: University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Abstract: The invention discloses a method of converting carbon dioxide to methanol and/or dimethyl ether using any methane source or natural gas consisting of a combination of steam and dry reforming ... with subsequent conversion of the CO and H2 mixture exclusively to methanol and/or dimethyl ether. This method is termed the BI-REFORMING.TM. process. Dehydrating formed methanol allows producing dimethyl ether (DME) using any suitable catalytic method, including use of solid acid catalysts. When recycling formed water into the bi-reforming step the conversion of carbon dioxide with methane produces exclusively dimethyl ether without any by-product formation and complete utilization of hydrogen.
Claims: A process of making exclusively dimethyl ether from carbon dioxide and a methane source which comprises: preparing methanol from carbon dioxide and a methane source by: combining wet reforming and dry reforming of sufficient amounts of methane, carbon dioxide and water under reaction conditions sufficient to produce an essentially 2:1 molar mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide; and converting the essentially 2:1 hydrogen and carbon monoxide mixture under conditions sufficient to form methanol; dehydrating the methanol thus produced; and recycling any water that is present under conditions sufficient to utilize only carbon dioxide and methane from the methane source to produce exclusively dimethyl ether.
Background: Methanol is a convenient safe liquid easily obtained from ... coal ... via methods developed and practiced since the 1920's.
Methanol not only represent a convenient and safe way to store and transport energy, but together with its derived product dimethyl ether (DME), is an excellent fuel.
Methanol and DME ... provide a number of important advantages as transportation fuels. Contrary to hydrogen, methanol storage does not require any energy intensive procedures for pressurization or liquefaction. Because it is a liquid at room temperature, it can be easily handled, stored, distributed and carried in vehicles. DME although gaseous at room temperature can be easily stored under modest pressure and used effective in admixture with diesel fuels ... .
Methanol is also an attractive liquid fuel for static applications. For example, methanol can be used directly as fuel in gas turbines to generate electric power.
(As in some of our separate reports concerning the conversion of Coal syngas into Methanol, to serve as a reservoir of power plant fuel during periods of peak power demand.)
Methanol is also one of the safest fuels available. Compared to gasoline, methanol's physical and chemical properties significantly reduce the risk of fire. Methanol has lower volatility, and methanol vapor must be four times more concentrated than gasoline for ignition to occur. Even when ignited, methanol burns about four times slower than gasoline, releases heat only at one-eighth the rate of gasoline fire, and is far less likely to spread to surrounding ignitable materials because of the low radiant heat output.
Methanol and/or DME also provide an attractive and more environmentally-friendly alternative to diesel fuel. They do not produce smoke, soot, or particulates when combusted, in contrast to diesel fuel, which generally produces polluting particles during combustion. They also produce very low emissions of NOx because they burn at a lower temperature than diesel. Furthermore, they have a significantly higher vapor pressure compared to diesel fuel, and the higher volatility allows easy start even in cold weather, without producing smoke typical of cold start with a conventional diesel engine.
Conversion of methanol to olefins such as ethylene and propylene, also known as methanol to olefin (MTO) technology, is particularly promising considering the high demand for olefins, especially in polyolefin and synthetic hydrocarbon products production.
(We can convert CO2-derived Methanol into plastics, in other words, where the Carbon Dioxide consumed, via the process disclosed herein, in the original synthesis of the Methanol would be forever, and productively, "sequestered".)
There is also a methanol to gasoline (MTG) process, in which medium-pore zeolites with considerable acidity, e.g., ZSM-5, are used as catalysts.
(The) process developed by ExxonMobil, with ZSM-5 catalyst, produces hydrocarbons in the gasoline and/or distillate range at selectivity greater than 95%.
Summary: Our invention relates to a method of preparing methanol and/or dimethyl ether from any source of carbon dioxide (natural or industrially produced) by a novel specific combination of steam and dry reforming of methane or natural gas to give the needed H2 to CO mole ratio (and) incorporating external carbon dioxide. This method we call the bi-reforming process. It comprises reacting methane under a specific combination of conditions with steam (wet) and CO2 in a specific sequence.
The needed methane source, depending on its availability, can be ... coal-bed methane (or) any other natural sources of methane, methane hydrates, as well methane formed by the hydrolysis of aluminium carbide or any other convenient source.
Our invention represent an efficient new method to convert carbon dioxide with methane (natural gas) to methanol and/or dimethyl ether."
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Among other sources of the needed Methane, we submit, should be as it can be synthesized from Carbon Dioxide itself, as in: NASA Recycles CO2 to Methane at Room Temp | Research & Development | News; or, from Coal, as in: Exxon Converts 99% of Coal to Methane | Research & Development | News.
In any case, as confirmed herein by a Nobel Laureate and our own United States Government, we can, efficiently, convert Carbon Dioxide, reclaimed from whatever source, into the substitute Diesel fuel, Dimethyl Ether, and, into the liquid fuel, and Plastics and - as confirmed again by Olah and Prakash herein - Gasoline raw material, Methanol.
Is there any sense, now, whatsoever, in continuing any discussion, whatsoever, of fraudulent US Coal Country victimization schemes and scams like Cap & Trade taxation and mandated Geologic Sequestration?
Is there any sense, now, in continuing and extending our economic enslavement to, and our deepening impoverishment at the hands of, OPEC and Big Oil?
As with the technologies that exist, which would allow us to efficiently convert our abundant domestic Coal into anything needed that we now derive from petroleum, it is far, far past time all of us genuinely-patriotic US citizens woke up, and started to make certain the rest of the nation, as a whole, "got real" about all of this.