United States Patent Application: 0110113681
We submit herein what we are led to characterize as an overly-specific Carbon Dioxide recycling technology; and, we are, further, led to suspect that it is so overly-specific because the CO2-recycling concepts it embodies are, unbeknownst to us common Coal-mining folk who are being threatened with Cap and Trade CO2 taxation, and being extorted by OPEC oil, becoming so well-recognized and accepted among the cognoscenti that those cognoscenti are scrambling now to find one way or another to cash in on a coming CO2-recycling bonanza.
We've previously documented numerous times, as, for several examples, in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Penn State Designs CO2-to-Methane Bioreactor | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent Application 20110281333 - Methane Production from Single-Cell Organisms; 2011; Inventors: Paul W. Brown, (Penn State University's Department of Materials Science and Engineering), et. al., Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for enhancing the growth of single-cell organisms, such as methanogens. The growth of the single cell organisms includes consuming carbon dioxide to produce methane"; and:
West Virginia Coal Association | USDOE Algae Recycle CO2 into Liquid Fuels | Research & Development; concerning: "Title: Liquid Fuels from Microalgae; 1987; National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO; USDOE; Abstract: The goal of the DOE/SERI Aquatic Species Program is to develop the technology to produce gasoline and diesel fuels from microalgae"; and:
West Virginia Coal Association | Chicago Bugs Convert CO2 into Methane | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent Application 20090130734 - The Production of Methane from CO2; 2009; Inventor: Lauren Mets, (University of Chicago) Abstract: A method of converting CO2 gas produced during industrial processes comprising contacting methanogenic archaea with the CO2 gas under suitable conditions to produce methane";
that various microorganisms, specifically certain types of Algae and specific strains of Bacteria, are able to consume Carbon Dioxide and produce, among other things, Oil and Methane.
What's happening, we think, is that those sorts of technologies are so obviously valuable, and feasible on a practical basis, to anyone knowledgeable enough who looks into them, that, those knowledgeable people are now trying to "lock in" their individual pieces of the CO2-recycling pie by identifying and claiming specific types of CO2-recycling organisms and, as seen in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Algae Recycle More CO2 and Produce Butanol | Research & Development; concerning: "US Patent Application 20110177571 - Designer Calvin-Cycle-Channeled Production of Butanol; 2011; Inventor: James Weifu Lee; Designer ... transgenic photosynthetic organisms for photobiological production of butanol and related higher alcohols from carbon dioxide and water are provided"; .
specific products that can arise from the biological recycling of Carbon Dioxide.
That, we suspect profit-motivated, drive towards such Carbon Dioxide recycling specifics is now extending, perhaps surprisingly, to the source of the Carbon Dioxide.
Keep in mind that, chemically speaking, CO2 is CO2, no matter where we get it.
But, it might matter in terms of legalities relative to where and how the CO2 is collected, and, who then gets to share in the profits from whatever products might be made from that CO2.
That, as we perceive it, is the motivation behind the US Patent Application we submit herein, as seen in excerpts, with comment inserted and appended, from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"United States Patent Application 20110113681 - Use of By-Product Carbon Dioxide from a Steam Methane Reformer in an Algae Biofuel Production Process
Date: May, 2011
Inventors: Mathias Mostertz, Germany, and John Brull, New Jersey
(As we've previously noted, the affiliations of the inventors, if any, and the ultimate Assignee of US Patent rights, are often not published in early versions of US Patent applications. Based on references available online, we believe the two inventors are employed by Germany's Linde Group, AG, a multinational supplier of industrial gases. See:
Home | The Linde Group; and: The Linde Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The Linde Group, registered as Linde AG is an international industrial gases and engineering company founded in Germany in 1879. The group is headquartered in Munich, Germany ... . The Linde Group underwent a significant transformation in September 2006, following the acquisition of UK based competitor The BOC Group. The merger and subsequent disposal of non-gas interests recast the group as the world's largest pure-play industrial gases supplier".)
Abstract: Carbon dioxide that is collected as a by-product of hydrogen production from a steam methane reformer (SMR) is used as a feed stock for growth of algae biomass for various purposes, e.g. biofuel production, chemical intermediates, nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals. This invention helps reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a known greenhouse gas, and helps to optimize algae growth that is used for the production clean biofuel to reduce the dependence on petroleum and fossil fuels.
Claims: A system for the production of algal biomass comprising: a steam methane reformer that produces by-product carbon dioxide; means to collect the by-product carbon dioxide from the steam methane reformer; means to transport the collected carbon dioxide from to an algae production facility; and means to introduce the transported carbon dioxide to algal biomass production at the algae production facility.
A method ... wherein the algal production facility is an open pond system or a closed photobioreactor system ... .
(We've touched briefly on both the above CO2-recycling Algae cultivation techniques. The use of "a closed photobioreactor system" would seem most appropriate for the often less-than-balmy climes of our more local piece of US Coal Country, and, as seen in:
West Virginia Coal Association | USDOE Enables CO2-Recycling Processes | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 6,603,069 - Adaptive Full-Spectrum Solar Energy System; 2003; Assignee: UT-Battelle, Oak Ridge (USDOE); Abstract: An adaptive full spectrum solar energy system having at least one hybrid solar concentrator, at least one hybrid luminaire, at least one hybrid photobioreactor. This invention was made with Government support under contract no. DE-AC05-00OR22725 to UT-Battelle, LLC, awarded by the United States Department of Energy. The optical and mechanical properties ... more efficiently deliver large quantities of visible sunlight (to) photobioreactors. This invention uses: advanced materials ... and ... biomass resource development through innovative approaches to improve sunlight utilization in photobioreactors used in carbon sequestration and the production of fuels, chemicals, and agriculture products";
and as we will further document, the development of such "closed photobioreactor system"s for Carbon Dioxide recycling by Algae and other organisms, is well underway.)
A method ... further comprising purifying and conditioning the collected carbon dioxide.
A method ... further comprising harvesting biomass produced at the algal production facility, processing the harvested biomass for industrial use (and) wherein the industrial use is biofuel (or) a chemical intermediate, a nutraceutical or a pharmaceutical.
Background and Field: The present invention relates to methods and apparatus that use by-product carbon dioxide (CO2) from a steam methane reformer (SMR) to provide feed for the growth of algae used in biomass production, including the production of algal biomass for any purpose, e.g. biofuel production, chemical intermediates, nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals.
Methane reformers are devices used to produce pure hydrogen from natural gas, such as methane, and a catalyst, usually nickel. Two types of reformers are predominantly used in the industry, autothermal reforming and steam methane reforming (SMR), both working by exposing the natural gas to the catalyst at high temperature and pressure."
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We included the information about the direct application of this Carbon Dioxide recycling technology to the "methane reformer", a device employed by some petroleum refiners to obtain Hydrogen for upgrading heavy crude, only to emphasize that this is, again, an application-specific CO2-recycling process, wherein the CO2 is generated by the reaction: CH4 + 2H2O = 4H2 + CO2.
There are a lot better ways to generate Hydrogen, as we've documented, for just one example, in:
USDOE Algae Make Hydrogen for Coal and CO2 Hydrogenation | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,442,211 - Method for Producing Hydrogen and Oxygen by Use of Algae; 1984; Assignee: The United States of America; Abstract: Efficiency of process for producing H2 by subjecting algae in an aqueous phase to light irradiation is increased by culturing algae which has been bleached during a first period of irradiation in a culture medium in an aerobic atmosphere until it has regained color and then subjecting this algae to a second period of irradiation wherein hydrogen is produced at an enhanced rate.Claims:A method of producing H2 and O2 by use of algae and light";
wherein, in a technology conceptually related to the process of our subject, "United States Patent Application 20110113681 - Use of By-Product Carbon Dioxide from a Steam Methane Reformer in an Algae Biofuel Production Process", Algae can be used to both consume CO2 and produce Hydrogen.
But, again, our main point herein is, that, the use of Algae to recycle Carbon Dioxide, arising from any industrial process, into a wide variety of valuable products is becoming so well understood that the various Algae-based CO2-recycling technologies are beginning to differentiate themselves based on their source of the Carbon Dioxide.
It is, in essence, a "CO2 Rush", like the California Gold Rush, in it's early stages. A number of enlightened folk have come to recognize the immense raw material value inherent in Carbon Dioxide, have refined some Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies and, to legally lock in a portion of the CO2 prize, are applying their CO2 recycling technologies to specific Carbon Dioxide sources.
We'll be supporting that thesis with additional reports to follow. But, it all goes to emphasize a point we have been attempting to drive home, which is:
Carbon Dioxide, as it arises in only a small way, relative to natural sources of emission, such as volcanoes, from our essential use of Coal in the generation of economical electric power, and, as herein, from the steam reforming of Methane gas for the production of Hydrogen, is a valuable raw material resource.
Carbon Dioxide can be collected from any available source, and, again as herein, be converted, in this case by Algae, into a variety of valuable and needed organic chemical products, including, again in the specific case of our subject, "United States Patent Application 20110113681 - Use of By-Product Carbon Dioxide from a Steam Methane Reformer in an Algae Biofuel Production Process", "clean biofuel", and "chemical intermediates, nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals".
