Electrochemical Cell for Production of Synthesis Gas Using Atmospheric Air and Water
We have submitted numerous reports documenting the fact that blends of Carbon Dioxide and Water, whether the CO2 is dissolved in liquid Water or whether the two are combined as gases, with the Water having been first converted into Steam, can be electrolyzed in specially-designed cells, and be thereby broken down into Hydrogen, Carbon Monoxide and Oxygen.
The Hydrogen and the Carbon Monoxide can then be reacted together, through a variety of long-known and well-established catalytic processes often generically labeled as one sort or another of "Fischer-Tropsch" technique, and be made thereby to form a wide variety of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons.
Our own US Government has been active, though quietly so, in the development of such technologies. One reason for their silence might be due to the implications those technologies would have on our national defense, especially since, as documented in:
US Air Force 1965 CO2 to Fuel Conversion | Research & Development; concerning: "Catalytic Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Methane and Water; This report summarizes the work accomplished under contract AF 3"(615)-1210, for research on catalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to methane and water The effort was initiated on 6 January 1964 and completed 31 December 1964.This work was performed under project 6146, "Atmosphere and Thermal Control",- and task 614622, "Oxygen Recovery From Carbon Dioxide." The effort was initiated (and) monitored by (the) Research and Technology Division, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base";
some of our key strategic USDOD facilities have been involved in the development of such technology for quite a long time.
And, as seen in:
US Navy Recycles CO2 to Liquid Fuel | Research & Development | News; which presents details of:
"United States Patent: 7420004 - Process and System for Producing Synthetic Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuels;
Date: September, 2008; Assignee: The USA as represented by the Secretary of the Navy; Abstract: A process for producing synthetic hydrocarbons that reacts carbon dioxide, obtained from seawater of air, and hydrogen obtained from water, with a catalyst in a chemical process such as reverse water gas shift combined with Fischer Tropsch synthesis. The hydrogen is produced by nuclear reactor electricity, nuclear waste heat conversion, ocean thermal energy conversion, or any other source that is fossil fuel-free, such as wind or wave energy. The process can be either land based or sea based";
our US Department of Defense has definitively established technologies which would allow us to harness environmental energy, i.e., "wind or wave", to both capture Carbon Dioxide from the environment and then convert it, with Water, into "synthetic hydrocarbons".
Other branches of our US Government, as well, have been at work developing related technologies for the productive use of Carbon Dioxide, based on the same sort of co-electrolysis of it with Water, in processes that produce a synthesis gas blend of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide.
Just a few of our reports concerning the US Department of Energy's involvement in that work have included:
USDOE CO2 + H2O = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development; concerning: "Co-Electrolysis of H2O and CO2 for Syngas Production; 2006; Idaho National Laboratory, US Department of Energy; Abstract:
(A) research project is underway at the Idaho National Laboratory to investigate the feasibility of producing syngas by simultaneously electrolyzing steam and carbon dioxide"; and:
More USDOE CO2 "Syntrolysis" | Research & Development; concerning: "Co-Electrolysis of Steam and Carbon Dioxide for Production of Syngas; 2007; Idaho National Laboratory, USDOE; and Ceramatec, Inc., Utah; Abstract: An experimental study has been completed to assess the performance of single-oxide electrolysis cells ... simultaneously electrolyzing steam and carbon dioxide for the direct production of syngas. The syngas can then be used for synthetic fuel production."
Noting the participation, in the report cited immediately above, of the USDOE contractor, Ceramatec, Inc., we herein present a key piece of technology developed by them, a device which enables and provides for the efficient co-electrolysis of such blends of CO2 and H2O, obtained from the environment or a concentrated industrial source, to form a "syngas" which can then, as above, "be used for synthetic fuel production".
Comment follows excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"US Patent Application 2007/0045125A1 - Electrochemical Cell for Production of Synthesis Gas
Date: March, 2007
Inventors: Joseph Hartvigsen, et. al., Utah
Assignee: Ceramatec, Inc., Salt Lake City
Abstract: A method is provided for synthesizing synthesis gas from carbon dioxide obtained from atmospheric air or other available carbon dioxide source and water using a sodium-conducting electrochemical cell.
Synthesis gas is also produced by the co-electrolysis of carbon dioxide and steam in a solid oxide fuel cell or solid oxide electrolytic cell.
The synthesis gas produced may then be further processed and eventually converted into a liquid fuel suitable for transportation or other applications.
Background and Field: The present invention relates in general to methods for producing synthesis gas from easily obtainable precursors, and more particularly, to the generation of such synthesis gas from atmospheric air and water.
The system ... includes means for facilitating the reaction of CO2 and H2 to form synthesis gas comprising CO and additional H2. Such means may include a catalyst exposed to the mixture of CO2 and H2. The catalyst may be a watergas shift catalyst or a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst.
(We have explained the "watergas shift" and "Fischer-Tropsch" reactions in multiple previous reports, and will document them further in additional reports to follow. We won't clutter up the presentation herein by including links to any of our previous reports concerning them; but, suffice it to say that both have been known for a long time, and many efficient variants of them both are well-established in certain segments of the scientific community. They are not, in any way, "futuristic" or impractical.)
(In one) embodiment, sodium hydroxide ... is reacted with a source of carbon dioxide to form sodium carbonate which may replace the sodium carbonate decomposed in the (device of the invention).
(Again as we have documented in previous reports, CO2 can be "scrubbed" from either exhaust gases or the atmosphere itself with an alkali or alkaline metal hydroxide solution in water. The reaction of the hydroxide with the CO2 forms a "carbonate", which can then cyclically be decomposed, within a suitable reaction vessel, to yield Carbon Dioxide and to reform the hydroxide CO2 absorbent. Such is described in:
US Navy and Columbia University Recycle Atmospheric CO2 | Research & Development; which includes separate report of: "United States Patent: 7833328 - Scrubber for Capturing Carbon Dioxide from Air; 2010; Assignee: Columbia University; Abstract: The present invention is directed to methods for carbon dioxide from air, which comprises exposing solvent covered surfaces to air streams ... wherein the solvent is adapted to remove carbon dioxide from open air under ambient conditions (and) wherein the solvent is a hydroxide solution".)
The source of carbon dioxide includes, but is not limited to atmospheric air, combustion gases, and aerobic decomposition gases.
The electrochemical cell may be embodied within a plurality of stacked electrochemical cells separated by bipolar plates. The use of stacked electrochemical cells may enable the efficient production of large quantities of synthesis gas.
(Note that, as above, in other words, the technology can be made to be "modular", and thus, one presumes, adjustable in size to accommodate the available supplies of both Carbon Dioxide and the energy needed to process the Carbon Dioxide at any given location.)
Another embodiment within the scope of the invention includes an electrochemical device for the co-electrolysis of carbon dioxide and steam to produce synthesis gas.
Claims: An electrochemical cell for producing synthesis gas."
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Which "coelectrolysis of carbon dioxide and steam", as above, is what our Idaho National Laboratory's "Syntrolysis" technology, as cited in our introductory comments, is all about.
However, as in our subject Patent Application's introductory comments, and in details provided within the full body of the Disclosure, which we haven't reproduced, there seems provision made for generating the synthesis gas not just from H2O and CO2 as provided separately, but, as well, directly from the Water solution of Sodium Carbonate.
We'll leave those interpretations to the genuine experts among our readers, but, if our interpretation is correct, then the technology could, in that sense, be seen as being similar to others, such as reported in:
Standard Oil Electrolyzes CO2 to Carbon Monoxide | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,668,349 - Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 by Square Planar Transition Metal Complexes; 1987; Assignee: The Standard Oil Company, Cleveland; Abstract: A process for the electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide comprises immersing a transition metal complex with square planar geometry into an aqueous or nonaqueous solution which (contains) carbon dioxide, ... and reducing the carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide"; or, as already cited above, our own US Navy's process of "USP 7,420,004 - Process and System for Producing Synthetic Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuels".
In any case, yet again, it is seen herein that we can now start to view our effluent Carbon Dioxide as a valuable raw material resource, a compound that, if we make the effort to recover it, we can, instead of stuffing it all wastefully, and at great expense, down a Geologic Sequestration rat hole, utilize productively in the, through initial formation of a "synthesis gas", production of, as specified: "liquid fuel".