The first day of May, that is, May Day, has forever it seems been a day of festival; one traditionally celebrated by the pagans to mark the passing of cold and darkness; and, the coming of a season of light.
It was adopted by the early Socialist, or "Workers", movement in Europe as a holiday of special significance, and was celebrated as such; as, for instance, in the poem:
"The Worker's Maypole", by Walter Crane, which appeared in the Socialist journal Justice, all the way back in 1894, and goes, in part:
"Cast the clouds of the winter behind ye; And come forth and be glad in the sun."
Well, herein, it's an immigrant to the United States, from the one-time epitome of the Socialist movement, Russia, who's telling us to "come forth and be glad in the" light of the Truth:
Carbon Dioxide - - as 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 affordable and economical electric power - - is a valuable raw material resource.
Carbon Dioxide can be reclaimed, and then be efficiently converted, recycled, into needed hydrocarbons.
We've cited Russian emigre, and University of Maryland professor, Alex Severinsky previously.
As seen in our report of:
West Virginia Coal Association | Maryland's 2012 CO2-Recycling Valentine | Research & Development; concerning the award-winning Dr. Severinsky's:
"United States Patent 8,114,916 - Systems ... for Production of Synthetic Hydrocarbon Compounds; February 14, 2012; Inventor: Alexander Severinsky, MD; Assignee: Fuelcor, LLC, VA; Abstract: A process and system for producing hydrocarbon compounds or fuels that recycle products of hydrocarbon compound combustion - - carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, or both, and water. The energy for recycling is electricity derived from preferably not fossil based fuels, like ... renewable energy. The process comprises electrolysing water, and then using hydrogen to reduce externally supplied carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, then using so produced carbon monoxide together with any externally supplied carbon monoxide and hydrogen in Fischer-Tropsch reactors, with upstream upgrading to desired specification fuels; for example, gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel fuel, and others"; and:
"United States Patent 8,093,305 - Systems ... for Production of Synthetic Hydrocarbon Compounds; January 10, 2012; Inventor: Alexander Severinsky, MD; Assignee: Fuelcor, LLC, VA; Abstract: A process and system for producing hydrocarbon compounds or fuels that recycle products of hydrocarbon compound combustion--carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, or both, and water. The energy for recycling is electricity derived from preferably renewable energy"; and:
"United States Patent 7,642,292 - Systems ... for Production of Synthetic Hydrocarbon Compounds; January 5, 2010; Inventor: Alexander Severinsky, MD; Assignee: Fuelcor, LLC, MD; Abstract: A process and system for producing hydrocarbon compounds or fuels that recycle ... carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, or both, and water";
he, with official United States Government confirmation of the facts, has been busy over the past several years demonstrating pretty definitively that Carbon Dioxide is, indeed, the valuable raw material resource we here have been claiming it to be.
And, not long ago, on that ancient day of festival once of importance to Soviet Russia, Alex Severinsky and the US Patent and Trademark Office did it yet again.
As seen in excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"United States Patent 8,168,143 - Systems, Methods and Compositions for Production of Synthetic Hydrocarbon Compounds
Systems, methods, and compositions for production of synthetic hydrocarbon compounds - Fuelcor, LLC
Date: May 1, 2012
Inventor: Alexander J. Severinsky, MD
Assignee: Fuelcor, LLC
Abstract: A process and system for producing hydrocarbon compounds or fuels that recycle products of hydrocarbon compound combustion--carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, or both, and water. The energy for recycling is electricity derived from preferably not fossil based fuels, like from ... renewable energy. The process comprises electrolysing water, and then using hydrogen to reduce externally supplied carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, then using so produced carbon monoxide together with any externally supplied carbon monoxide and hydrogen in Fischer-Tropsch reactors, with upstream upgrading to desired specification fuels--for example, gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel fuel, and others. Energy released in some of these processes is used by other processes. Using adiabatic temperature changes and isothermal pressure changes for gas processing and separation, large amounts of required energy are internally recycled using electric and heat distribution lines. Phase conversion of working fluid is used in heat distribution lines for increased energy efficiency. The resulting use of electric energy is less than 1.4 times the amount of the high heating value of combustion of so produced hydrocarbon compounds when carbon dioxide is converted to carbon monoxide in the invention, and less than 0.84 when carbon monoxide is the source.
(Note, that, in the above, we would actually achieve a net gain in energy, relative to the amount of electric energy needed to effect the electrolysis of Water for the production of Hydrogen, in the synthesized hydrocarbons if, as the basis of the process, we started with Carbon Monoxide rather than Carbon Dioxide. And, that is because Severinsky postulates using some of the produced Hydrogen in a version of the Water Gas Shift reaction, when we start with CO2, to first chemically "reduce externally supplied carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide", and, "then using so produced carbon monoxide together with ... hydrogen in Fischer-Tropsch reactors" produce hydrocarbons.
More Hydrogen, in other words, would have to be produced when we start with Carbon Dioxide; thus, the higher expense of energy and the lower energy return on energy invested - - a phrase or measure you will occasionally see abbreviated as "EROI", or EROEI" - - when the reverse water gas shift reaction, RWGS, as explained more fully below, is employed in systems like our subject herein.
Keep in mind, that, as seen, for just one example, in:
Bayer Improves Coal + CO2 = Carbon Monoxide | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 7,473,286 - Carbon Monoxide Generator; 2009; Assignee: Bayer Material Science, AG, Germany; The present invention relates to a novel generator for the reaction of carbon-containing raw materials and also to an improved process for the production of carbon monoxide gas (CO gas) having a high degree of purity using such a generator. Carbon monoxide gas is frequently produced in the art by means of a continuous process in which carbon-containing raw materials are reacted with oxygen and carbon dioxide";
we do have other options available to us for converting Carbon Dioxide into Carbon Monoxide, if those options would be more economical than generating extra Hydrogen for the, as specified herein, initial conversion of Carbon Dioxide into Carbon Monoxide.
And, since the process of the above "United States Patent 7,473,286 - Carbon Monoxide Generator" should, based as it is on the partial oxidation of Carbon, i.e., Coal, be self-sustaining, then, depending on the expense of obtaining the purified Oxygen, which could come as a byproduct from the water electrolysis specified by our subject herein, "United States Patent 8,168,143 - Systems, Methods and Compositions for Production of Synthetic Hydrocarbon Compounds", to obtain the Hydrogen needed for the "Fischer-Tropsch reactors", there might be some profit to be had in combining the two systems.)
Claims: A system for producing hydrocarbon compounds comprising:
a) a unit for generating hydrogen gas from water and electrical energy;
b) at least one reverse water gas shift reactor supplied with at least carbon dioxide gas and the hydrogen gas, wherein the at least one reverse water gas shift reactor is configured to generate syngas; and:
c) a unit for generating a mixture of at least hydrocarbon compounds and thermal energy from at least the syngas, wherein at least a portion of the thermal energy produced in generating the mixture is transferred to the at least one reverse water gas shift reactor using a heat pumping process, and wherein the unit for generating a mixture of at least hydrocarbon compounds and thermal energy operates at a lower temperature than the at least one reverse water gas shift reactor.
(As we've previously documented, for one example in:
West Virginia Coal Association | ExxonMobil Self-Powered Coal Conversion | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 3,254,023 - Heat Balancing in Organic Reactions; 1966; Assignee: Socony Mobil Oil Company, NJ; Abstract: This invention relates to a method of carrying out an exothermic chemical reaction and an endothermic reaction in a single reaction zone wherein the heat evolved in the exothermic reaction is utilized to effect the endothermic reaction. (The) exothermic reaction may comprise a Fischer-Tropsch type of synthesis reaction. The exothermic synthesis addition reaction of the Fischer-Tropsch type may be ... utilized to obtain unsaturated and/or saturated aliphatics";
the Fischer-Tropsch reaction, wherein a blend of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, i.e., "Syngas", is catalytically and chemically condensed into hydrocarbons, is "exothermic". That is, the hydrocarbon synthesis reaction generates heat energy; which heat energy can be recovered and utilized to help drive other needed, but "endothermic", chemical reactions that are a part of the total hydrocarbon production system; thus enabling achievement of some additional economies within the process. Herein, the heat generated by the Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbon synthesis is to be directed to the Reverse Water Gas Shift Reaction, to help drive the conversion of CO2 and Hydrogen to Carbon Monoxide and Water.)
The system ... wherein the at least one reverse water gas shift reactor comprises more than one reverse water gas shift reactor (and) wherein at least a portion of the thermal energy is transferred to heat input or output gases, or both, of the at least one reverse water gas shift reactor using the heat pumping process.
(It can be a little tough to keep them straight, but, as can be learned via
Water gas shift reaction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; the "water-gas shift reaction (WGS) is a chemical reaction in which carbon monoxide reacts with water vapor to form carbon dioxide and hydrogen", (according to the formula): "CO + H2O = CO2 + H2"; and, via:
RWGS; the"reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction has been known to chemistry since the mid 1800's (and) is given by (the) equation: CO2 + H2 = CO + H2O";
they are closely-related. And, both can be utilized to help make the primary components of hydrocarbon synthesis gas.)
The system ... wherein a portion of the hydrogen gas is used in addition to syngas by the unit for generating a mixture of at least hydrocarbon compounds and thermal energy.
The system ... wherein the heat pumping process comprises ethylene as a working fluid.
A system for producing hydrocarbon compounds comprising:
a) a unit for generating hydrogen gas from water and electrical energy;
b) at least one reverse water gas shift reactor supplied with at least carbon dioxide gas and the hydrogen gas, wherein an effluent stream from the at least one reverse water gas shift reactor comprises at least syngas and carbon dioxide gas;
c) a unit for generating a mixture of at least hydrocarbon compounds from at least the syngas; and:
d) a unit for separating at least a portion of the carbon dioxide gas from the effluent stream of the at least one reverse water gas shift reactor before providing the effluent stream to the unit for generating a mixture of at least hydrocarbon compounds from at least the syngas, or a unit for separating at least a portion of the carbon dioxide gas from the effluent stream of the unit for generating a mixture of at least hydrocarbon compounds from at least the syngas, by condensation at a temperature below ambient temperature; wherein excess heat collected during condensation is transferred to ambient temperature using a heat pumping process.
(Our understanding of it is that any CO2 left un-reacted, and there will be some, is directed back into the series of reverse water gas shift reactors. The limitation in amounts if CO2 which can be consumed lies in the amount of Hydrogen which can be made economically available. The WGS isn't an option, since it generates CO2 along with Hydrogen, and defeats the purpose of the RWGS reactors.
Keep in mind that the specifications call for "a unit for generating hydrogen gas from water and electrical energy"; and, as seen, for example, in our reports of:
West Virginia Coal Association | Chicago Hydrogen from H2O | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,793,910 - Photoelectrochemical Cell for Unassisted Photocatalysis; 1988; Assignee: Gas Research Institute, Chicago; Abstract: A multielectrode photoelectrochemical cell ... which ... contains two bipolar electrode panels for photoelectrochemical reactions such as water photolysis to produce H2 (and) O2"; and:
West Virginia Coal Association | Germany & Pennsylvania Hydrogen from Hydropower | Research & Development; concerning, in part: "United States Patent 6,841,893 - Hydrogen Production from Hydro Power; 2005; Assignees: Voith Siemens Hydropower Generation GmbH and Incorporated, Germany and York, PA; Abstract: A method is provided for operating a hydroelectric power generating facility configured for operating in first and second operating modes. The facility includes a turbine driven power generating unit receiving a flow of water through an upstream conduit to generate electrical power. The method ...wherein the facility includes hydrogen producing equipment and the first operating mode involves producing hydrogen from the generated electrical power";
with more, similar, to follow in coming reports, there exist some well-developed technologies for efficiently electrolyzing Water, perhaps using a renewable environmental energy to generate the needed electricity.
Severinsky, in the full Disclosure of prior and related art, makes specific reference to the process of:
"United States Patent: 4235694 - Electrolytic Cells for Hydrogen Production; 1980; Inventor: Frederick Hall, California; Abstract: An electrolytic cell bank comprising two end plate electrodes, a plurality of intermediate electrodes, a plurality of dielectric separators spaced between the electrodes to form electrolytic cell chambers, a plurality of gas separator diaphragms, alkaline electrolyte, manifolds for allowing off-gas withdrawal of hydrogen and oxygen and means for back-pressuring the exterior walls of each end plate to counter-balance pressures developed within the electrolytic cell chambers. The cell bank is utilized to convert water into its constituent gases of oxygen and hydrogen, and the cell bank is sufficiently large to commercially produce hydrogen".)
Background and Field: This invention relates generally to the field of hydrocarbon compound production and, more specifically, to energy efficient processes and systems that produce hydrocarbon compound fuels. In a preferred embodiment, the invention relates to an apparatus and a method to convert electric energy into hydrocarbon compound fuels, such as gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel and diesel fuel, among others, and which are produced by recycling products of combustion - - carbon dioxide and water.
Although the idea for developing synthetic hydrocarbon fuels has been discussed for at least the last 30 years, there has not been a need to produce them because of the availability, ease of production, transportation, and processing of fossil fuels. However, the worldwide fossil fuel market is changing due to a number of factors, including steadily increasing worldwide energy demand, increasing concentration of production in oil producing regions, and increasing emphasis in oil dependant countries on the importance of energy supply.
There are several disadvantages to using fossil fuels. First, there is a finite amount of fossil fuels available which, once used, cannot be regenerated.
There are several well-established processes for direct hydrogenation of gases such as carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide to produce hydrocarbon fuels. One of the most successful was developed in Germany in the 1920s by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch.
In 1938, early German plants produced approximately 5 million barrels per year of diesel oil and gasoline using the Fischer-Tropsch process, which reacts carbon monoxide and hydrogen over a catalyst to produce liquid hydrocarbons and water.
(Those "early German plants" were, of course, using Coal as the raw material from which to generate the "carbon monoxide and hydrogen".)
Summary: The present invention comprises systems, methods and compositions for the production of synthetic hydrocarbon compounds, particularly hydrocarbon compounds that can be used as fuels.
In general, species of carbon oxides, carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide, are converted into one or more hydrocarbon compounds, comprising carbon and hydrogen, including but not limited to diesel fuel, gasoline, jet fuels, liquefied petroleum gas, or compounds found in natural gas. A particular process comprises forming, with electricity, a hydrogen stream, and in the presence of at least a portion of the hydrogen from the hydrogen stream, converting at least a portion of the carbon monoxide present in a carbon monoxide stream, into a hydrocarbon compound.
In a preferred embodiment of the system with a carbon dioxide input, the amount of input electric energy needed to convert carbon dioxide into high heating value of output hydrocarbon compounds combustion energy is in a range of between 1.4 and 1.1. In another preferred embodiment of the system with a carbon monoxide input (thus eliminating the need to convert carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide), the external electric energy needed to convert carbon monoxide is between 0.64 and 0.84 of the high heating value of hydrocarbon compounds. That is, in an embodiment of the present invention using carbon dioxide as an input, more electric energy will be required than the high heating value of combustion of hydrocarbon compounds produced. In another embodiment of the present invention, using carbon monoxide as an input, less electric energy will be required than the high heating value of combustion of hydrocarbon compounds produced.
(Again, we return to the lower EROI when starting with Carbon Dioxide. The required electrical energy input to recycle CO2 can be forty percent higher than the energy we would get out of the fuel being made from the CO2. But, if that energy could be derived from, perhaps site-specific, environmental energy, then it might be one way to profitably "leverage" relatively minor sources of environmental energy into a genuinely usable form. For instance, it might not make much sense to put a couple of windmills on the top of one small hill just to make electricity to feed into the grid.
But, if those windmills could provide enough energy the drive the needed Reverse Water Gas Shift reaction, then the smaller amount of energy they generate moment-to-moment would accumulate over time in the form of hydrocarbons produced. And, thus, the relatively small amount of otherwise not-commercial environmental electricity would itself be converted into a profitable and useable form.)
According to an aspect of the present invention, it is possible to produce within one plant on the order of five hundred thousand gallons of fuel per day, or even more, (where) sufficient electric energy, carbon monoxide and/or carbon dioxide are available.
One aspect of the invention comprises systems and methods comprising an electrolyser and a Fisher-Tropsch reactor, and in some embodiments, also a reverse water gas shift reactor, for producing hydrocarbon compounds. The present invention comprises methods and systems for producing hydrocarbon compounds comprising converting at least a portion of one of the species of carbon oxide, including but not limited to carbon monoxide, into hydrocarbon compounds, via a Fischer-Tropsch process in the presence of at least a portion of the hydrogen stream; and transferring at least a portion of excess heat from the Fischer-Tropsch process to one of the other process steps in the method or system, to a portion of a method or system requiring energy, or one of the other units in the system, for example, to an electrolyser or a reverse water gas shift reactor.
(The Fischer-Tropsch reaction heat could be directed, in other words, to either one or the other of the processes that are making Hydrogen or converting CO2 into Carbon Monoxide.)
In the present invention, there are numerous places where certain gases must be separated from a gas mixture, or for example, gas parameters such as temperature and pressure, must be changed to make one or both compatible with an upstream or downstream process. These separations or changes to gases in the invention consume large amounts of energy. It is a novel aspect of the invention that energy can be transferred within the invention to meet the energy needs for gas separations and changes.
The present invention comprises systems and methods that provide the ability to produce a variety of hydrocarbon compounds, such as compounds for different fuels and a degree of control in producing one or more specific types of hydrocarbon fuels that is not found with currently available methods for making synthetic fuels.
One aspect of the invention comprises systems and methods comprising preferably an electrolyser, a reverse water gas shift reactor, and a Fisher-Tropsch reactor for producing hydrocarbon compounds. The present invention comprises methods and systems for producing hydrocarbon compounds comprising converting at least a portion of one of the species of carbon oxide, including but not limited to carbon monoxide, into one or more hydrocarbon compounds, via a Fischer-Tropsch process in the presence of at least a portion of a hydrogen stream; and transferring at least a portion of excess thermal energy from the Fischer-Tropsch process to one of the other process steps in the method requiring energy, or one of the other units in the system, for example, to an electrolyser or a reverse water gas shift reactor.
An electrolyser may be used to separate water into a hydrogen gas stream and a stream of oxygen gas.
The process may further comprise the conversion of a species of carbon oxide, including carbon dioxide. This step of converting one or more species of carbon oxide may comprise converting carbon dioxide in a reverse water gas shift (RWGS) process. The conversion of CO2 takes place in the presence of hydrogen, and hydrogen may be provided by at least a portion of the hydrogen from the hydrogen stream from the electrolyser. Conversion of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide may be accomplished by any methods known to those skilled in the art and such methods are contemplated by the present invention.
The carbon monoxide stream for the present invention may be provided from any source, for example, a source may be a stream of carbon monoxide from a source separate from and outside the present invention. A second source of carbon monoxide is as a portion of the effluent stream from the optional reaction process converting carbon dioxide to, among other species, carbon monoxide. The carbon dioxide stream for this process may come from a source such as carbon dioxide waste from a source outside the present invention."
-----------------------
Severinsky, as we indicated earlier on in our excerpts, concludes again by leaving his process somewhat open-ended.
That is, on the one hand, with all of it's components, it will produce Hydrocarbons from the Fischer-Tropsch reaction which can be upgraded via standard refining processes into "gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel fuel, and others", with inputs only of Energy, Water and Carbon Dioxide.
On the other hand, we can reduce the amount of Energy that needs to be supplied to the system by providing it with either or both supplemental Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide.
And, since the "electrolyser" specified by Severinsky to provide at least some of the Hydrogen would produce Oxygen, from Water, as a byproduct, that Oxygen could be directed to a process like that described in our report of:
Germany 98% Pure Carbon Monoxide from Coal, CO2 and O2 | Research & Development; concerning: "Carbon Monoxide from Coke, Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen; Hydrocarbon Process(US); 1986; Lurgi GmbH, Frankfurt (Germany); Abstract: Many valuable organic chemicals-both as intermediate or final products-can be made from high purity carbon monoxide (CO). ... In order to provide a source of inexpensive CO ... a very attractive new scheme has been developed. ... According to this concept merely two process steps are required to convert coke to high purity CO. The purpose of the first process step is to gasify coke using a mixture of CO2 and O2 as gasification agent while the second one serves to remove sulfur compounds and residual CO2";
to convert even more Carbon Dioxide into supplemental Carbon Monoxide; which, as Severinsky details and as we explained earlier on, could result in a net energy surplus in the products of his system, relative to the raw materials going into it.
And, additional, supplemental Hydrogen could, alternatively, be obtained from a process like that seen in
West Virginia Coal Association | USDOE Algae Recycle More CO2 and Produce Hydrogen | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 7,642,405 - Designer Algae for Photo-biological Hydrogen Production; 2010; This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 awarded by the United States Department of energy. The Government has certain rights in this invention. Abstract: A switchable photosystem-II designer algae for photo-biological hydrogen production. A transgenic alga comprising at least one exogenous transgene for providing a photosystem-II (PSII) function switch to increase the photo-biological H2 productivity. The various embodiments effectively provide a single-organism ... two-stage H2-production technology. In various embodiments, organic reserve, such as starch, is accumulated through ... algal culture growth by normal oxygenic photosynthesis using CO2 and sunlight energy in an aerobic reactor";
wherein certain strains of Algae, grown in industrial-scale bio-reactors, can be made to produce Hydrogen gas, in the course of a cyclic metabolism that manufactures Hydrogen after having sequestered, in the form of useful "starch", even more Carbon Dioxide.
Again:
Far past time we all "Cast the clouds of" ignorance and disinformation "behind" us, ain't it, and came "forth and" were "glad in the" Truth?