Method of preparing mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen
We've sent you a number of reports concerning the former New York company, M.W. Kellogg, and their development, before and during WWII, of technologies that would have enabled, even then, the productive recycling of Carbon Dioxide in the synthesis of hydrocarbon fuels.
Two of those have included:
1940 CO2 + H2O + CH4 = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development | News; in which is disclosed:
"US Patent 2,198,553 - Making a Synthesis Gas Mixture of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen; April, 1940; Assignee: The M.W. Kellogg Company, NY; Abstract: Our invention relates to a method of making synthesis gas ... from methane, steam and carbon dioxide."; and:
Even More 1940 CO2 + CH4 = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development | News; which concerned:
"US Patent 2,220,849 - Method for Forming Synthesis Gas; November, 1940; Assignee: The M.W. Kellogg Company, NY; Abstract: My invention relates to a method and apparatus for forming a synthesis gas and more particularly to a method of converting a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide ... to mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen suitable for use in various processes of synthesizing organic compounds."
Keep in mind, again, that the needed Methane, CH4, can itself be synthesized from Carbon Dioxide, as seen, for just once example out of now many, in:
Chicago Recycles CO2 to Methane | Research & Development | News; in which is seen the more recent:
"US Patent 4,609,440 - Electrochemical Synthesis of Methane; 1986; Assignee: Gas Research Institute, Chicago; Abstract: A method is described for electrochemically reducing carbon dioxide to form methane by electrolyzing an aqueous solution containing carbon dioxide."; and/or from Coal, as seen in:
More Pittsburgh Coal to Methane | Research & Development | News; wherein is disclosed:
"US Patent 4,022,810 - Methane Synthesis Catalyst; 1977; Assignee: Gulf Research and Development Company, Pittsburgh; Abstract: The conversion of carbon monoxide and hydrogen to produce methane (and) wherein the charge stock is derived from the gasification of coal."
Given all of that, following, with further comment appended, are excerpts from the initial link, above, to:
"United States Patent 2,185,989 - Preparing Mixtures of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen
Date: January 2, 1940
Inventor: George Roberts, NJ
Assignee: M.W. Kellogg Company, NY
Abstract: My invention relates to a method of preparing raw material gases in predetermined proportions for the production of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, or more particularly, synthesis gas for use in various catalytic synthesis processes.
It is well known that synthesis gas (mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen) may be formed from methane, carbon dioxide and steam.
(Note: On the first business day of 1940, our own US Government officially acknowledged that it was, even then, already "well known" that a hydrocarbon "synthesis gas" could be made from "methane, carbon dioxide and steam".)
Methane will combine with carbon dioxide and steam as follows: 3CH4 + CO2 + H2O = 4CO + 8H2.
It has been suggested that carbon dioxide may be recovered from flue gas ... or any gas rich in carbon dioxide, such as fermentation gas ... .
(So, it is further acknowledged: The process of making Green Corn Ethanol, as in "fermentation gas", is a "rich" source of CO2.)
One object of my invention is to provide an economical method of generating synthesis gas.
Claims: A method of preparing a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen for catalytic synthesis including the steps of ... stripping ... absorbed carbon dioxide by means of methane ... and thereby forming a mixture of carbon dioxide and methane ... .
(Note: Kellogg, in the full disclosure, specifies that CO2 is to be "absorbed" by any one of a number of known agents used in stripping CO2 from flue gas. And, it is, as above, surprisingly revealed that those absorbents can be regenerated by stripping the absorbed CO2 out of them with Methane.)
A method ... in which steam is added to the mixture of carbon dioxide and methane before its passage to the synthesis gas generating zone.
A method of preparing a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen for catalytic synthesis (from Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Steam)."
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Presuming you to have followed our posts, you will know that, as seen for one instance in:
1944 CO2 + H2O + CH4 = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development | News; wherein we reported:
"US Patent 2,355,753 - Catalytic Apparatus; 1944; Assignee: The M.W. Kellogg Company, NJ; Abstract: The present invention ... is especially well exemplified in it's application to the production of a synthesis gas adapted for use in the synthesis of various organic compounds, as for example, the production of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen for use in the production of hydrocarbons in accordance with the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction. A synthesis gas suitable for use in this (Fischer-Tropsch) reaction may be prepared by the interaction of methane with carbon dioxide, or with steam, or with a mixture of carbon dioxide and steam ..."; that:
The development of such constructive Carbon Dioxide recycling technology, directed to the synthesis of hydrocarbon fuels, is very much like our, and the world's, development of nuclear weaponry, in that it began prior to, and proceeded throughout, WWII.
What does it say about our values, about the world's values, that we have, since then, spent vast fortunes on arming ourselves, engorging ourselves, with an international mass-destruction weapons armory based on nuclear technology, instead of on sustaining ourselves, with a technology that would, in an economical and environmentally-sensitive way, recycle the reputedly-harmful CO2 by-product of our essential Coal use, into an array of hydrocarbon products, into essential fuels that would subsequently have enabled us to have avoided any number of oceanic oil spills and international OPEC-inspired armed conflicts.