Exxon brings a number of things we have previously documented for you together in this US Patent, for yet another Carbon Dioxide recycling technology targeted on the production of a blend of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide: a synthesis gas that can then be catalytically condensed into higher, liquid hydrocarbons.
First, it is another of the "tri-reforming" techniques, which our domestic petroleum industry, including some of the companies related and precedent to Exxon/ExxonMobil, began developing shortly after WWII; and, in which Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Water are reacted together and made thereby to form such a hydrocarbon synthesis gas. As seen, for one example, in our report of:
Standard Oil 1950 CO2 + CH4 + H2O = Syngas | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 2,522, 468 - Production of Synthesis Gas; 1950; Assignee: Standard Oil Development Company;
Abstract: My invention relates to the production of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen suitably proportioned for use as a feed-gas in the synthesis of hydrocarbons. It is a matter of record and commercial practice, particularly in countries foreign to the United States, to prepare hydrocarbons, including those boiling in the gasoline and gas oil range, by reacting a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. What I claim is: The method of continuously forming a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen ... which consists essentially in charging a mixture of methane, steam and carbon dioxide to a reforming zone containing (a specified) catalyst (under specified conditions) ... and recovering from said zone, a product gas containing ... carbon monoxide and hydrogen."
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Further, such Carbon Dioxide reforming technologies have, unbeknownst to the majority of us, been undergoing at least sporadic improvement over the ensuing decades, as documented for one example in:
Minnesota & WV CO2 + CH4 + H2O = Syngas | Research & Development; "US Patent 6,254,807 - Control of H2 and CO Produced in Partial Oxidation Process; 2001; Inventors: Lanny Schmidt, Minneapolis, and Paul Witt, Dunbar, WV; Abstract: A process for enhancing H2 or CO production in a partial oxidation reaction (that combines) H2O or CO2 with ... methane."
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We acknowledge that Methane is required for such technologies. But, we remind you again that the 1912 Noble Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Paul Sabatier for first demonstrating that Methane could, in fact, be itself synthesized from Carbon Dioxide.
Even further, as we have many times documented, the premise behind Sabatier's technology has also undergone some development and refinement since 1912, leading to improvements in the process for converting Carbon Dioxide into Methane. As seen, for one instance, in:
Stanford University Converts CO2 to Methane | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,404,068 - Solid State Method for Synthesis Reactions; 1983; Assignee: Stanford University; Abstract: A method for synthesizing reaction products, such as hydrocarbons ... is provided by use of a solid state electrochemical cell. A preferred embodiment may be used to produce methane ... (from) CO2 and ... H2".
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Finally, it is acknowledged that some energy input is required to drive CO2-H2O-CH4, or, just CO2-CH4, reforming reactions, to produce hydrocarbon synthesis gas; and, some innovative means have been developed to supply that energy in effective and efficient ways, as we have recorded for you in multiple reports, more than one of which, but, especially:
Swiss US CO2-to-Fuel Patent | Research & Development; included documentation of:
"United States Patent: 6375832 - Fuel Synthesis; 2002; Assignee: ABB Research, Zurich, Switzerland; Abstract: A method of transforming a normally gaseous composition ... (consisting of) carbon dioxide as said carbon source and said oxygen source, and of methane as said hydrogen source and as a second carbon source; the method comprising the steps of feeding the composition into a reactor including a first electrode means, a second electrode means and at least one layer of a normally solid dielectric material positioned between the first and the second electrode means; submitting the composition within the reactor in the presence of a normally solid catalyst to a dielectric barrier discharge, wherein said normally solid catalyst is a member selected from the group of zeolites, aluminophosphates, silicoaluminophosphates, metalloaluminophosphates and metal oxides containing OH groups; and controlling the dielectric barrier discharge to convert the gaseous composition into the normally liquid fuel. Sources of gaseous compositions containing methane and/or carbon dioxide are for example fermentation gas, natural gas or any waste and exhaust gases deriving from industrial processes and containing methane and/or carbon dioxide. It is, however, in accordance with and within the scope of the present invention to use commercially available methane and carbon dioxide of any purity or any other source of methane and/or carbon dioxide known to the man skilled in the art."
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Note that the above link to US Patent 6,375,832 is one which leads to the official United States Patent and Trademark Office electronic record of it. In our previous reports citing USP 6,375,832, that direct USPTO link, for unknown reasons, was unavailable or didn't function; and, we were compelled, in those reports, to include links to independent, third-party electronic files of it.
In any case, the use of such innovative energy sources, to drive Carbon Dioxide reforming reactions, was not, unsurprisingly, unknown to the US petroleum industry.
And, we see herein, via the initial link in this dispatch, that the Swiss scientists at ABB were, in their Disclosure of USP 6,375,832, only hiking a trail that had already been hewn by Big Oil.
Comment follows excerpts from that initial link to:
"US Patent 5,266,175 - Conversion of Methane, Carbon Dioxide and Water using Microwave Radiation
Date: November, 1993
Inventor: William Murphy, CA
Assignee: Exxon Research and Engineering Company, NJ
Abstract: A mixture of methane, water and carbon dioxide can be effectively converted to carbon monoxide and hydrogen by subjecting the mixture to microwave radiation in the presence of at least one plasma initiator that is capable of initiating an electric discharge in an electromagnetic field.
Claims: A method for converting methane and carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide and hydrogen which comprises: introducing a feed stream containing methane, carbon dioxide and (up to) 20% water ... into a reaction zone that contains at least one plasma initiator which initiates an electric discharge in an electromagnetic field,
(And) subjecting the reaction zone to microwave radiation thereby initiating an electric discharge in said reaction zone, and ... ionizing the methane, carbon dioxide and water reactants whereby at least a portion of the methane and carbon dioxide are converted to carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
The method ... wherein the plasma initiator is a metal, a non-metal other than silica or a composite of metal and non-metal (and) wherein the metal is tungsten, iron, nickel, copper, their alloys, or mixtures thereof.
Background and Field: This invention relates to a method for converting methane and carbon dioxide in the presence of water to carbon monoxide and hydrogen using microwave radiation.
This invention requires the presence of methane, carbon dioxide, water, at least one elongated plasma initiator capable of initiating an electric discharge in an electromagnetic field, and a source of microwave energy.
The methane and carbon dioxide may be pure or mixed with other hydrocarbons.
Non-hydrocarbons (e.g. H2S, N2, H2, etc.) may be present in either or both as well.
(It ain't, in other words, too picky about what it gets fed. Smokestack exhaust with some Methane added to it might work just fine.)
The frequency of the microwave source can vary broadly. The microwave energy used in this invention may be continuous or pulsed.
By initiating the conversion of methane and carbon dioxide in the presence of water, it has been discovered that the energy efficiency or rate of dissociation of methane and carbon dioxide is substantially increased thereby increasing the overall conversion of methane and carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and hydrogen."
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And, such a blend of "carbon monoxide and hydrogen", we remind you, is precisely what is required by the Fischer-Tropsch reaction (see: Fischer–Tropsch process - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) to manufacture a wide range of liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
Finally, although we can, clearly, as in the above-cited process of Stanford University's USP 4,404,068, synthesize the Methane required by the process of Exxon's USP 5,266,175, to manufacture a hydrocarbon synthesis gas through reactions with Carbon Dioxide, from Carbon Dioxide itself, we remind you, as seen in:
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Exxon 1976 Coal to Methanol + Methane | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 3,993,457 - Concurrent Production of Methanol and Synthetic Natural Gas; 1976; Assignee: Exxon Research and Engineering Company; Abstract: Methanol and synthetic natural gas are produced concurrently (in an) integrated process for the production of methanol and a synthetic natural gas, which is substantially methane, from a carbonaceous material"; that:
we can also manufacture the Methane, required in the process of USP 5,266,175, to convert Carbon Dioxide into a synthesis gas suitable for the production of liquid hydrocarbon fuels, as the by-product of another process that manufactures, primarily, another liquid hydrocarbon fuel out of our abundant Coal.