SE2007050418 A METHOD AND A REACTOR FOR MAKING METHANOL
In a recent dispatch, now accessible on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site, via the link:
West Virginia Coal Association | Sweden Converts Carbon Dioxide and Water into Methanol | Research & Development;
we made report of:
"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; Assignee: Morphic Technologies Aktiebolag, Karlskoga, Sweden; Abstract: Methanol is produced from carbon dioxide and water".
We are including the above supplemental link, as is included in that original report, since the primary link embedded in that dispatch, to the US Patent and Trademark Office online record of "United States Patent Application 20090246572" has, since publication, as often happens with official USPTO links to published patent applications, failed to function properly.
However, a search of the USPTO site using the application number reveals that it is still there, and active, although one other independent web site record of the application does record it as being "abandoned".
We don't believe that to be the case, however. As we documented for you in that report, the corporate sponsor of the technology, "Morphic Technologies", even though no one in US Coal Country, or maybe even in New York City, has ever heard of them, is a large, well-established and international developer and manufacturer of fuel cell technologies.
They would not have made a frivolous application which they weren't prepared to support and defend.
Further, they have not only applied for US Patent protection on separate, but related and supporting Carbon Dioxide-recycling technology, as we will document in at least one report to follow, but, as we see herein, they are seeking international, world, patent protection for the process disclosed in their "US Patent Application 20090246572 - Method And A Reactor For Making Methanol".
Comment follows excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"Publication No.: WO/2007/145586; International Application No.: PCT/SE2007/0504
A Method and A Reactor for Making Methanol
Filing Date: June, 2007; Publication Date: December, 2007
Applicants: Morphic Technologies Aktiebolag, Sweden
Inventors: Olof Dahlberg and Alf Larsson, Sweden
Abstract: In a reactor of fuel cell type, methanol is produced from carbon dioxide and water. The reactor comprises 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. Further, the reactor is divided into a plurality of cells (1, 2, 3) that are flow connected in series for carrying out a multi-step cathode reaction, where each cell has a catalyst that is optimized for the reaction step that is to be carried out in the cell. In the process, a voltage is connected between the cathode and the anode, and in a first step the carbon dioxide is exposed to a first desired cathode reaction, where the carbon dioxide 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. By using the collected carbon dioxide to produce methanol, which then advantageously may be used as fuel in fuel cells of DMFC type in vehicles, there is a possibility of achieving a considerable reduction of the amount of carbon dioxide that has to be deposited (i.e., disposed of or sequestered).
In addition, at the anode, water is oxidized to hydrogen peroxide, which advantageously may be used as oxidant in fuel cells of DMFC type."
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We'll keep our excerpts brief since the full Disclosure is essentially repetitive of that in our previous report of "US Patent Application 20090246572".
Again, although these patent applications remain published, there is some indication of delay, or even withdrawal of at least the one submitted to the USPTO.
And, we believe, hard as it might be to believe, that could be due to challenges raised that this technology infringes both prior and coincident Carbon Dioxide recycling art.
As seen, for just two examples, there are a number of others, in our reports of:
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, Chicago; Abstract: A method of producing methanol from carbon dioxide is set forth.
Claims: A method of producing methanol from carbon dioxide (which comprises) electrolyzing a solution of carbon dioxide in an aqueous solvent having an electrolyte therein and utilizing a cathode which comprises molybdenum to produce methanol"; and:
West Virginia Coal Association | Princeton Scientists Convert More CO2 to Methanol and Ethanol | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent Application 20110114502 - Reducing Carbon Dioxide to Products; May, 2011; Inventors: Emily Barton Cole (and) Andrew Bocarsly, et. al.; Abstract: A method for reducing carbon dioxide to one or more products is disclosed. The method may include steps (A) to (C). Step (A) may bubble the carbon dioxide into a solution of an electrolyte and a catalyst in a divided electrochemical cell. The divided electrochemical cell may include an anode in a first cell compartment and a cathode in a second cell compartment. Claims: A method for reducing carbon dioxide to one or more products ... wherein said products (of the Carbon Dioxide chemical reduction) comprise one or more of acetaldehyde, acetone, carbon, carbon monoxide, carbonates, ethanol, ethylene, formaldehyde, formic acid, glyoxal, glyoxylic acid, graphite, isopropanol, methane, methanol, oxalate, oxalic acid and polymers containing carbon dioxide. A method for reducing carbon dioxide to one or more products, comprising the steps of: (A) bubbling said carbon dioxide into a solution of an electrolyte and a catalyst in a divided electrochemical cell";
the successful development of divided electrochemical cells, as in the process of our subject, "International Application No.: PCT/SE2007/0504; A Method and A Reactor for Making Methanol", for converting Carbon Dioxide and Water into Methanol, and other valuable products, has been underway for very nearly three decades, and probably longer.
Further, "International Application No.: PCT/SE2007/0504; A Method and A Reactor for Making Methanol" and it's United States counterpart, "United States Patent Application 20090246572 - Method And A Reactor For Making Methanol", relying as they do on "fuel cells of DMFC type", that is, Direct Methanol Fuel Cells, might be too derivative of even additional Carbon Dioxide recycling technology, like that seen in:
West Virginia Coal Association | California March 2012 Efficient CO2 to Methanol | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 8,138,380 - Electrolysis of Carbon Dioxide ... for Production of Methanol; 2012; Inventors: George Olah and G.K. Surya Prakash, CA; Assignee: University of Southern California; Abstract: An environmentally beneficial method of producing methanol from varied sources of carbon dioxide including flue gases of fossil fuel burning power plants ... . Converting carbon dioxide by an electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide in a divided electrochemical cell that includes an anode in one compartment and a metal cathode electrode in a compartment that also contains an aqueous solution comprising methanol and an electrolyte. An anion-conducting membrane can be provided between the anode and cathode to produce at the cathode therein a reaction mixture containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which can be subsequently used to produce methanol while also producing oxygen in the cell at the anode. The oxygen produced at the anode can be recycled for efficient combustion of fossil fuels in power plants to exclusively produce CO2 exhausts for capture and recycling as the source of CO2 for the cell".
That, especially, since, as seen in:
Direct methanol fuel cell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; "In 1990 ...Dr. Surya Prakash, and Nobel laureate Dr. George A. Olah, both of the University of California ... invented a fuel cell that would directly convert methanol to electricity";
the named inventors of "United States Patent 8,138,380 - Electrolysis of Carbon Dioxide ... for Production of Methanol" are also the inventors of the "fuel cells of DMFC type" specified by the Disclosure of our subject, "International Application No.: PCT/SE2007/0504".
Key to the successful, or meaningful, operation of such devices, from our perspective, would involve two things.
First, as a rule of thumb, they should be driven by non-fossil sources of energy, as conceptually embodied in our report of:
West Virginia Coal Association | Penn State Seeks CO2 Recycling Patent | Research & Development; concerning: "US Patent Application 20100213046 - Nanotube ... Photocatalytic Conversion of Carbon Dioxide; 2010; Inventors: Craig Grimes, et. al., PA; Assignee: The Penn State Research Foundation; Abstract: Nitrogen-doped titania nanotubes exhibiting catalytic activity on exposure to any one or more of ultraviolet, visible, and/or infrared radiation, or combinations thereof are disclosed. Also, methods are disclosed for use of nitrogen-doped titania nanotubes in catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide alone or in admixture with hydrogen-containing gases such as water vapor ... into products such as hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon-containing products".
Second, given that, as in "United States Patent 8,138,380 - Electrolysis of Carbon Dioxide ... for Production of Methanol" and in the process of our subject, "International Application No.: PCT/SE2007/0504 - A Method and A Reactor for Making Methanol", it is, in fact, Methanol that is being synthesized from Carbon Dioxide, then at least a portion, we would think, of that Methanol should be directed into industrial syntheses such as described in:.
Honeywell’s UOP and Total Petrochemicals Successfully Demonstrate Technology to Produce Plastics from Feedstocks Other Than Oi; "Honeywell's UOP and Total Petrochemicals Successfully Demonstrate Technology to Produce Plastics from Feedstocks Other Than Oil; UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced today that Total Petrochemicals has successfully demonstrated UOP technology that will enable the use of feedstocks other than petroleum to produce plastics and other petrochemicals. A demonstration unit built by Total Petrochemicals at its complex in Feluy, Belgium, used UOP/Hydro MTO methanol-to-olefins technology to convert methanol to ethylene and propylene. The propylene was then successfully converted to polypropylene product. This demonstration proves that propylene produced from methanol at a semi-commercial scale is suitable for plastics production";
wherein it could be used as the primary raw material for the production of various useful and needed plastics, thereby decreasing even more our demand for petroleum and petro-chemicals and permanently, and productively, "sequestering" the Carbon Dioxide from which the raw material Methanol, as via the process of our subject, "International Application No.: PCT/SE2007/0504 - A Method and A Reactor for Making Methanol", was initially made.
All in all:
Carbon Dioxide, as it arises in only a very small way, relative to some natural sources of emission, such as volcanoes, from our essential use of Coal in the generation of genuinely economical electric power, is a valuable raw material resource.
As demonstrated herein, it can be recovered from whatever convenient source, and then be efficiently converted into the versatile and nearly-precious Methanol.
