CO2 - research - The Bayer Scientific Magazine
In a very recent dispatch, now accessible via:
West Virginia Coal Association | Bayer Is Converting Coal Power Plant CO2 Into Plastics | Research & Development;
we made report of a pilot plant built in Europe by one of US Coal Country's most valued corporate citizens, Bayer Corporation; a pilot plant where Bayer are extracting Carbon Dioxide from the exhaust stream of a nearby Coal-fired power plant, and are using that Carbon Dioxide as a raw material for the synthesis of polyurethane, and perhaps other, plastics.
Some details include:
"Bayer Material Science CO2-to-Plastics Pilot Plant, Germany; In February 2011, Bayer MaterialScience started a new pilot plant (in the) North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany for producing plastics from carbon dioxide (CO2). It will be used to develop polyurethanes from the waste gas released during power generation.
Bayer aims to use CO2 as an alternative to production of polymer materials from fossil fuels".
As noted in that dispatch, we had earlier made report of Bayer's development of several technologies related to the productive utilization of Carbon Dioxide; and, more reports concerning those technical developments are in process.
Herein, however, since some skepticism was immediately expressed to us concerning our post, "Bayer Is Converting Coal Power Plant CO2 Into Plastics", we wanted to confirm the fact, that, Bayer Corporation themselves confirm the assertion we have many times made:
Carbon Dioxide - - as it arises in only a very small way, relative to natural sources of emission, such as worldwide volcanism, from our essential use of Coal in the production of genuinely economical and affordable electrical power - - is a valuable raw material resource.
As seen in excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to Bayer Corporation's own publication, in The Bayer Scientific Magazine, of:
"Three atoms for a clean future
CO2 destined to become a valuable raw material for innovative substances
Oil is becoming increasingly scarce, and carbon dioxide an ever greater problem for the world’s climate. For this reason, chemists are constantly on the lookout for new ways to replace fossil raw materials and make good use of the greenhouse gas. Together with a group of partners, Bayer researchers are making good progress in this direction, and have found a way to incorporate CO2 into the molecular structure of polyurethanes, thus saving oil.
The bad boy among greenhouse gases is now destined to serve as a useful raw material in the plastics industry – in the interests of sustainable management. Chemists are aiming to use some of the CO2 produced by power plants to produce innovative new materials. By doing this, they will not only pave the way for the beneficial use of carbon dioxide, they will also reduce the chemical industry’s dependence on crude oil. After all, the liquid that lubricates the global economy is becoming increasingly scarce and ever more expensive, which is why scientists around the world are constantly seeking alternatives to replace the fossil raw material – either completely or in part.
(The replacing of OPEC "completely" sounds good to us; and, Coal and CO2 conversion, combined, would be one heck of a one-two punch right in those bandits' kissers. It is far past time we turned our, as above, "bad boy"s loose on 'em.)
One material for which this makes particularly good sense is a widely used plastic, polyurethane - PU for short. CO2 can be incorporated into the polyols that serve as raw materials for the production of PU.
(Actually, there are two "raw materials", in many cases, since the term "polyurethane" covers a rather broad range of polymer chemistries, which, combined, can serve as the "raw materials for the production of PU". And, Bayer knows how to make both of them out of Carbon Dioxide as a basic source material. We touched on that initially, in our report of:
Carbon Dioxide Recycled in the Manufacture of Plastics | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,564,513 - Process for the Production of Carbon Monoxide; 1986; Assignee: Bayer Aktiengesellschaft (AG), Germany; Abstract: Carbon monoxide is produced in an improved process in a carbon-filled, water-cooled generator in the configuration of a truncated cone in the longitudinal section, by the gasification of said carbon with a mixed gas of oxygen and carbon dioxide";
wherein it was again confirmed that Carbon Dioxide can be converted into the chemically reactive, and thus desirable, Carbon Monoxide through reaction with hot Carbon, i.e., Coal. That Carbon Monoxide can then be economically utilized in the further synthesis of other polyurethane raw materials known, somewhat generically, as "isocyanates"; which, when combined with "polyols", can make polyurethane plastics.
We will have more to offer on those potentials in future reports.)
This plastic is used for a very wide range of products in our daily lives, and is regarded as particularly
sustainable. When used for insulating buildings against heat and cold, for example, it saves around 70 times
more energy than is used to produce it.
PU not only insulates buildings, it also keeps the refrigerator cold, makes car seats comfortable and gives the soles of running shoes the necessary springiness.
Worldwide, around 13 million metric tons of polyurethanes are processed every year, and the trend is rising.
And, as with many other plastics, the components that go to make up the polyurethanes are obtained from crude oil. This fossil resource is the main supplier of the central element carbon, on which all organic chemistry is based. But it now seems that a new, virtually inexhaustible resource has opened up: thanks to
recent research successes, it will also be possible in future to use CO2 to economically integrate carbon into polyurethane.
Nature itself demonstrates how useful the molecule is: during the process known as photosynthesis, plants - with the help of water and sunlight - turn CO2 into the carbohydrates that serve as a source of energy. But although it may sound obvious, the process is very difficult indeed to transfer to the chemical industry because the CO2 molecule is chemically very stable and hardly reacts at all with other substances.
“Anyone who wants to use carbon dioxide as a raw material first has to drive out its chemical inertness,” explains Dr. Aurel Wolf, a chemist at Bayer Technology Services. The carbon atom and the two oxygen atoms are bonded together particularly tightly in CO2, “which makes it very difficult to integrate this inert molecule into plastics,” says Wolf. To give the carbon dioxide a helping hand, a catalyst is needed. This is a kind of chemical marriage broker that induces two substances to join together more easily.
Since the late 1960s, scientists all over the world have been searching for the right catalyst, but for many years without any significant success. The use of CO2 for plastics production was simply not viable. But a few years ago, a Bayer research team discovered catalysts that allow the efficient use of carbon dioxide, and
around 200 of them were put to the test. The scientists repeatedly linked up CO2 with propylene oxide – an oil-based feedstock for polyurethane – every time with a different catalyst. They investigated how a catalyst behaves under different testing conditions. The researchers additionally simulated the chemical reaction on the computer in order to understand what was really happening.
After numerous attempts, the research team finally made the breakthrough. A special zinc-based catalyst
triggered the desired reaction. Further developments went very quickly and a short time afterwards the step was taken from the laboratory to practical implementation. For this, five partners cooperated in the “Dream Production” project, supported by public funds. Apart from Bayer Technology Services, these were Bayer Material Science, the utilities company RWE Power, RWTH Aachen University and the CAT Catalytic Center, a research institution likewise located in Aachen and operated jointly by Aachen University and Bayer. In February 2011, the researchers at Bayer in Leverkusen started up a pilot plant in which CO2 from an RWE power plant in Niederaussem near Cologne was combined with propylene oxide for the first time on a large scale.
The result is a light-colored viscous substance: polyol, one of the two building blocks needed to produce polyurethane.
The plant was designed and built by Bayer Technology Services and is operated by Bayer MaterialScience.
The subgroup also produces the CO2-based test products. The researchers at the CAT Catalytic Center examine the carbon dioxide from the power plant to ensure, for example, that it is compatible with the catalyst. The partners’ big aim is to start implementing the technology in 2015. The first commercial product the chemists are looking at is a mattress based on CO2.
(Since, as seen in our report of:
West Virginia Coal Association | CO2 Recovered from Air for CO2-to-Gasoline Conversion | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,047,894 - Removing Carbon Dioxide from the Air; 1977; Siemens AG; Abstract: An improved method and apparatus for removing carbon dioxide from the air";
does that mean we can all soon start sleeping, literally, on repackaged clouds? - JtM)
Not only could its (the mattress's) interior well be more sustainable than before, it could also have other useful properties.
But the process is also very interesting for one of the partners, RWE. As an operator of ... coal-fired power plants, the company is looking for ways of reducing its CO2 emissions and finding alternatives for its use. Accordingly, RWE has great hopes for the incorporation of CO2 in plastics."
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We'll close our full excerpts there, since the article is rather long - and, well, well worth the read for anyone genuinely interested in the fact that Carbon Dioxide is actually a valuable raw material resource, one from which we can profitably make plastics while concurrently sequestering the CO2 and poking a big old finger, with Coal dust grimed under it's nail, into OPEC's right eye.
There is included in the article, however, a separate, sidebar interview, entitled "Raw Materials From The Power Plant", with Dr. Johannes Heithoff, Head of R&D at the above-noted RWE Power AG.
And, some additional excerpts from that interview are instructive:
"What is the biggest challenge technically with the CO2RRECT (CO2 recycling) project?
The development of efficient electrolysis units for hydrogen production and the development of catalysts
to convert the separated CO2 with hydrogen into hydrocarbons for storing chemical energy.
(The Hydrogen issue is resolvable, as seen, for only 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 certain strains of Algae, who will also consume Carbon Dioxide, will excrete Hydrogen for us in the course of their cyclic metabolism.)
Will the energy suppliers in future become raw material suppliers to the chemical industry?
Yes, we as power plant operators also see ourselves as raw material suppliers to other industries. CO2 is nowadays a waste product from the combustion of gas, oil or coal. One incentive for using the CO2 in other processes is the avoidance of costs for emission rights. So in this way, the CO2 becomes a useful material in exactly the same way as the gypsum produced as a by-product in the desulfurization of flue gas and the power plant ash, which is used in road building or as an additive to concrete.
(Dag nab, that old boy's on top of things, ain't he? We've pretty thoroughly documented the potentials for the productive use of Flue Gas Gypsum and Fly Ash, and we will certainly be documenting more of them. But, it sure is nice to see someone of stature come right out in public and agree with us.)
What will the material flows of the future look like so that projects such as Dream Production can be built up on an industrial scale?
As a supplier of CO2 to the chemical industry, we are at the beginning of the value chain for, let’s say, plastics production. Ideally, to minimize the cost of transporting the CO2, it should be further processed close to the power plant. Here, the additional energy requirement could then also be made available in the form of process heat and electricity directly from the power plant, which would increase the overall efficiency,
for example by combined heat and power generation, even further."
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And, thus, we could start manufacturing "plastics", and bringing more money home, right here in Coal Country, since, "to minimize the cost of transporting the CO2, it should be further processed close to the power plant".
We'll close here and let all of the above sink in; the sum of it being, as confirmed herein by both the esteemed Bayer Corporation and a very major producer of Coal-based electrical power, RWE Power AG, that:
Carbon Dioxide, as it conveniently arises from our essential use of Coal in the generation of truly economical and affordable electric power, is a valuable raw material resource.
We can reclaim it, and then utilize it in the manufacture of commercially valuable plastics, wherein it would be productively and profitably utilized; and, for all practical purposes, forever sequestered.
