United States Patent Application: 0090246572
Carbon Dioxide can be reacted with Water and made to form Methanol.
That is a plain fact which should by now be evident from, for just three examples, our reports of:
Conoco Converts CO2 to Methanol and Dimethyl Ether | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 6,664,207 - Catalyst for Converting Carbon Dioxide to Oxygenates; 2003; Assignee: ConocoPhillips Company; A catalyst and process for converting carbon dioxide into ... methanol and dimethyl ether"; and:
Texaco Recycles CO2 to Methanol & Methane | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,523,981 - Means and Method for Reducing Carbon Dioxide to Provide a Product; 1985; Assignee: Texaco, Incorporated; A process for reducing carbon dioxide to at least one useful product ... (including) formic acid (and/or) formaldehyde (and.or) methanol (and/or) methane"; and:
Chicago Recycles CO2 to Methanol | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,609,441 - Electrochemical Reduction of Aqueous Carbon Dioxide to Methanol; 1986; Assignee: Gas Research Institute; A method of producing methanol from carbon dioxide ... (which comprises) electrolyzing a solution of carbon dioxide in an aqueous solvent having an electrolyte therein".
Please understand those examples are just a selection of options chosen at random from a number of others that popped up, when we did a general topic search of the matter on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site, in that web site's Research and Development section.
The fact that CO2 can be so productively recycled should by now be seen as something so well-established that not one more single breath should be wasted on discussing nonsense like punitive Cap & Trade taxes levied against the coincidental producers of Carbon Dioxide, or the wasteful squandering of such a valuable resource through Geologic Sequestration.
The additional fact that not one word about the truth of that matter has seemed to find it's way into Coal Country public print is one which would seem to us to warrant some concerted scrutiny, by those empowered in one way or another to deal with such matters.
The obvious rift between genuine public and what might be one form or another of private and personal interests should be a cause, we have come to feel, of some suspicion.
That caution said, following, as excerpted from the initial link in this dispatch, with comment inserted and appended, is further confirmation of the fact, coming to us from the home nation of the Nobel Prize, that, Carbon Dioxide, as it is co-produced in only a very small way, relative to natural sources of emission such as volcanoes, from our essential use of Coal in the generation of truly economical electric power, is a valuable raw material resource; it can be reclaimed and then consumed in the synthesis of valuable hydrocarbons:
"United States Patent Application 20090246572 - Method And A Reactor For Making Methanol
(METHOD AND A REACTOR FOR MAKING METHANOL - MORPHIC TECHNOLOGIES AKTIEBOLAG)
Date: October, 2009
Inventors: Olof Dahlberg and Alf Larrson, Sweden
Assignee: Morphic Technologies Aktiebolag, Karlskoga, Sweden
(We know that "Morphic Technologies" ain't exactly a household name in US Coal Country. However, as can be learned via:
Tighter strategic focus for Morphic Fuel Cells - Renewable Energy Focus; and,
MORPHIC TECHNOLOGIES AB (MORPB:Stockholm): Stock Quote & Company Profile - Businessweek;
"Morphic Technologies AB (the "AB", "Aktiebolag", is roughly equivalent to our "Incorporated") develops and produces systems that capture, store, and convert renewable energy into electricity for private and industrial use. The company develops and sells fuel cells and components, including flow plates, complete fuel cell systems, and electrolyzers; and involves in the manufacture, supply, service, maintenance, installation, and commissioning of wind turbines to turbine suppliers, project developers, and energy companies. The company has operations in Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, and the United States";
Morphic Technologies are, in fact, a company of some size and substance who have, according to the above and other web-based sources, begun divesting themselves of some of their business components, so that they can strategically focus on one core segment: fuel cells. Keep that in mind.
Further, Sweden, though not at the top of everyone's list in the US when it comes to modern industrialized nations, is, or at least once was, in fact, a major center of industry. They are still significant producers of iron ore, which they extract from mines nearly a mile deep. They are, in fact, the original home of the Nobel prize, though it's now awarded by and in Norway, founded by the inventor of dynamite, Swede Alfred Nobel.)
Abstract: Methanol is produced from carbon dioxide and water in a reactor comprising a cathode side with a cathode and catalyst for the cathode reaction, an anode side with an anode and catalyst for the anode reaction, and an intermediate membrane separating the cathode side from the anode side. The reactor is divided into a plurality of cells that are flow connected in series for carrying out a multi-step cathode reaction. A voltage is connected between the cathode and the anode where the carbon dioxide is exposed to a cathode reaction, and is reduced to formic acid, in a second step the formic acid is reduced to formaldehyde and water, and in a third step the formaldehyde is reduced to methanol.
(Note the similar product sequence and mix, relative to Texaco's "United States Patent 4,523,981 - Means and Method for Reducing Carbon Dioxide to Provide a Product", as cited above.)
Claims: A process for the production of methanol, comprising connecting a voltage between a cathode and an anode of a reactor of fuel cell type, in a first step:
exposing carbon dioxide and water in the reactor to a first desired cathode reaction
(a) CO2 + 2H3O2 =.HCOOH + 2H2O ... (and), conducting the reaction products from the first step (1) to a second step (2), and there carrying out a second desired cathode reaction:
(b) HCOOH + 2H3O2 = HCHO+3H2O ... (and) conducting the reaction products from the second step (2) to a third step (3), and there carrying out a third desired cathode reaction:
(c) HCHO + 2H3O2 = CH3OH+2H2O while using a catalyst optimized for this reaction.
(Some explication seems in order here. First, the "H3O2" is known as "hydroxyoxonium", a complicated ion made from Water through the application of energy. It is often represented by the formula "OH(H2O)", and is fairly well-known in industry. See:
hydroxyoxonium | H3O2 | ChemSpider.
It is, in this case, as one of our more competent consultants reads it, one of the intermediate products generated within the system itself, as seen a little further below, so we don't have to go out and find a drum or two of it to buy somewhere.
The "HCHO" and the "HCOOH" are, respectively, Formaldehyde and Formic Acid, so we're looking at a chemistry here quite similar in some respects to the Texaco process of "US Patent 4,523,981 - Means and Method for Reducing Carbon Dioxide to Provide a Product", as per our earlier report, cited above.
The "CH3OH" is Methanol.)
A process ... further comprising using a catalyst of Ag (Silver) solely or together with TiO2 (Titanium Dioxide)and/or Te (Tellurium) for the cathode reaction in the first step.
(Of the above, only the "Te", the Tellurium, would be difficult to come by; and, it isn't, strictly speaking, as they point out, needed.)
A process ... further comprising using a catalyst of SiO2 (Silicon Dioxide) and TiO2 together with Ag for the anode reaction in the second step.
A process ... further comprising using water as a reductant at the anode together with catalyst of carbon black, anthraquinone and Ag for the following anode reaction: 4H2O = H2O2 +2H3O2.
A process ... further comprising carrying out the three reaction steps in three cells with series connected flows in the reactor.
A reactor of fuel cell type for use in the production of methanol from carbon dioxide and water ... .
(We thus return to Morphic Technologies well-documented return to their core "fuel cell" business, and remind you that this is, in fact, a "reverse fuel cell"; that is, one that turns around the reaction of a Methanol fuels cell as described in:
Direct methanol fuel cell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; "In 1990 superacid specialist Dr. Surya Prakash, and Nobel laureate Dr. George A. Olah, both of the University of Southern California ... invented a fuel cell that would directly convert methanol to electricity";
with the above Olah and Prakash, we remind you, having also devised their own ways and means for producing Methanol from Carbon Dioxide, as seen, for just one example, in:
California Converts Power Plant CO2 to Methanol | Research & Development | News; concerning: "US Patent Application 20060235091 - Efficient and Selective Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Methanol; 2006; George Olah and Surya Prakash, CA; Abstract: An environmentally beneficial method of producing methanol from varied sources of carbon dioxide including flue gases of fossil fuel burning power plants".)
A reactor ... wherein all the cells are designed for using a liquid reductant.
A reactor ... wherein, on the anode side, all cells have a catalyst of carbon black, anthraquinone and Ag for the use of water as liquid reductant and production of hydrogen peroxide in the following anode reaction:
4H2O = H2O2 + 2H3O2.
A reactor ... wherein the surface structure is composed of channels having a wave-shaped cross-section (and) wherein the thin cathode and anode plates comprise sheet-metal (as specified, and) wherein the membrane consists of glass ... doped to permit passage of protons/hydroxonium ions.
Field: The present invention relates to a process for the production of methanol ... from carbon dioxide and water.
Background: An increasingly growing field of use for methanol is as fuel in fuel cells, especially of DMFC type (i.e, "Direct Methanol Fuel Cell", as per our comments concerning George Olah and Surya Prakash, above) where a large growth is expected on the motor vehicle side. From an environmental point of view, methanol is to be preferred over ethanol, which gives a considerably larger emission of carbon dioxide. Further, for a production of ethanol based on agriculture, a farming area is required that is four times larger than the forest area required for production of methanol by gasifying energy forest, which does not compete with the demand for wood of the forest industries.
Further, there are problems in neutralizing carbon dioxide formed through oxidation, carbon dioxide being a so called greenhouse gas. In thermal power stations, for example, carbon dioxide is produced on a large scale and it has been suggested to collect it and depose it in empty oil and gas fields, for example, preferably beneath the bottom of the sea. However, it is desirable to find suitable areas of use for the carbon dioxide to reduce the need for depositing it.
Disclosure: The object of the present invention is to provide a process and a reactor, which by using carbon dioxide and water as starting materials in a synthesis will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that has to be deposited (i.e., disposed of).
In the process for production of methanol referred to in the introduction above, this object is achieved by connecting a voltage between a cathode and an anode of a reactor of fuel cell type, in a first step exposing carbon dioxide and water in the reactor to a first desired cathode reaction ... while using a catalyst optimized for this reaction, conducting the reaction products from the first step to a second step, and there carrying out a second desired cathode reaction ... while using a catalyst optimized for this reaction, and conducting the reaction products from the second step to a third step, and there carrying out a third desired cathode reaction (to form Methanol and Water).
In the reactor referred to in the introduction above, this object is achieved in that the rector is divided into a plurality of reactor cells of fuel cell type with series connected flows for carrying out a multistage cathode reaction, wherein each cell has a catalyst that is optimized for the reaction step to be carried out in the cell.
By using the carbon dioxide for the production of methanol ... there is a possibility of achieving a considerable reduction of the amount of carbon dioxide that has to be (disposed of).
(The) reactor will produce hydrogen peroxide as a by-product. Hydrogen peroxide (has commercial value).
By dividing up the production of the methanol from carbon dioxide and water into a plurality of steps, with catalysts optimized for each individual step, you can refine and control the desired reactions, so as to improve the degree of utilization and improve the power density.
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Again, this is just another, more advanced, and more efficient, version of other technologies, such as, for yet another example, that seen in our report of:
USDOE 1976 Atmospheric CO2 to Methanol | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 3,959,094 - Electrolytic Synthesis of Methanol from CO2; 1976; Assignee: The USA as represented by the USDOE; A method and system for synthesizing methanol from the CO2 in air using electric power. The CO2 is absorbed by a solution of KOH to form K2CO3 which is electrolyzed to produce methanol, a liquid hydrocarbon fuel";
wherein electrical energy, as perhaps advantageously derived from Coal Country's wind and hydro potentials, can be used to convert Carbon Dioxide and Water into Methanol.
Which Methanol, as explained more fully, for just one example, in our report of:
ExxonMobil "Clean Gasoline from Coal" | Research & Development; concerning the ExxonMobil publication:
"Methanol to Gasoline (MTG): Production of Clean Gasoline from Coal; So Advanced, Yet So Simple";
can be efficiently converted into Gasoline.
