Forgive us a certain coarseness, or sloppiness, in style. We were going to wait until the flu that has laid us low for the past half a fortnight or so had passed before attempting any new composition. The discomfort and almost total loss of sleep has ruined what little process of thought we had to begin with; destroyed our abilities to perform any analyses for you; and, made even more obtuse our compositional style.
But we're sort of driven now by a sense, that, if we, here, don't do our darndest to get this stuff to you, there ain't nobody else that gives enough of a hoot about the people of United States Coal Country, and about the economic health of the United States of America, to recognize their own cherished pet projects for the ugly, and dangerous, mutts they are, put those toys down and shoulder back to work with the real king of the energy ring: Coal.
First, we remind you that Carbon Dioxide, as it arises in a small way, relative to natural sources of emission, such as volcanoes, as you can learn basically real time via:
What's erupting? - List & map of volcanoes erupting at present;
from our essential use of Coal in the generation of abundant and truly affordable electric power, is a valuable raw material resource.
As we reported not long ago, in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Carbon Dioxide to Gasoline and Diesel | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 8,198,338 - Process for Producing Liquid Fuel from Carbon Dioxide and Water; June 12, 2012; Inventors: Arthur M. Shulenberger, et. al., California and Iceland; Assignee: CRI EHF, Iceland; Abstract: A process for producing high octane fuel from carbon dioxide and water is disclosed. The feedstock for the production line is industrial carbon dioxide and water, which may be of lower quality. The end product can be high octane gasoline, high cetane diesel or other liquid hydrocarbon mixtures suitable for driving conventional combustion engines or hydrocarbons suitable for further industrial processing or commercial use";
a company that, as can be seen in:
Carbon Recycling International; "Carbon Recycling International (CRI) captures carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and converts carbon dioxide into Renewable Methanol (RM)"; and, in:
Carbon Recycling International - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; "Carbon Recycling International Inc. (CRI) is an Icelandic-American renewable methanol company. Its emissions-to-liquid process uses carbon dioxide and water to create methanol fuel";
is already converting, on an industrial and commercial basis, industrial effluent Carbon Dioxide into the versatile alcohol, Methanol, has adapted their Carbon Dioxide recycling technology so that it can efficiently produce Gasoline and Diesel fuels, as well.
And, herein, we wanted to again affirm, though citation of a company about whose Carbon Dioxide capture technologies and expertise we've previously reported, as for one instance in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Efficient September, 2012, CO2 Air Capture | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 8,273,160 - Method and Apparatus for Extracting Carbon Dioxide from Air;
September 25, 2012; Inventors: Alan Wright, Klaus Lackner, and Ursula Ginster, AZ; Assignee: Kilimanjaro Energy, Inc., San Francisco, CA; Abstract: A method and apparatus for extracting CO2 from air comprising an anion exchange material formed in a matrix exposed to a flow of the air, and for delivering that extracted CO2 to controlled environments";
that: It is perfectly feasible to consider, on a practical basis, the extraction of Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere itself for the purposes of utilization of that CO2, wherever happy confluences of high air movement to bring in the CO2, and some supply of environmental energy, perhaps wind as well, is available to drive the processes of CO2-utilization, exist in juxtaposition or close proximity to each other.
Comment follow excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"United States Patent 8,337,589 - Extracting Carbon Dioxide from Air
Date: December 25, 2012
Inventors: Allen Wright, Klaus Lackner, Ursula Ginster, AZ
Assignee: Kilimanjaro Energy, Inc., San Francisco, CA
Abstract: A method and apparatus for extracting CO2 from air comprising an anion exchange material formed in a matrix exposed to a flow of the air, and for delivering that extracted CO2 to controlled environments. The present invention contemplates the extraction of CO2 from air using conventional extraction methods or by using one of the extraction methods disclosed; e.g., humidity swing or electro dialysis. The present invention also provides delivery of the CO2 to greenhouses where increased levels of CO2 will improve conditions for growth. Alternatively, the CO2 is fed to an algae culture.
(We're not as fond of the "algae culture" uses for collected and separated CO2 as we are of it's direct chemical recycling. That does not mean such uses aren't valid. Far from it. All our tools should be employed, and, as seen, for just one example, in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Algae Recycle More CO2 and Produce Butanol | Research & Development; "United States Patent Application 20110177571 - Designer Calvin-Cycle-Channeled Production of Butanol; Date: July, 2011; Inventor: James Weifu Lee, MD; (Note: We can't easily document the fact for you, but, separate information seems to indicate that Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientist Lee is currently assigned to/working with the engineering faculty at Maryland's Johns Hopkins University. Thus, the variance in his officially-listed state of residence, relative to that given in the above-cited "United States Patent 7,973,214". And, again, the ultimate assignee of rights to United States Patents often isn't published in early public versions of US Patent Applications.) Abstract: Designer Calvin-cycle-channeled and photosynthetic ... pathways, the associated designer genes and designer transgenic photosynthetic organisms for photobiological production of butanol and related higher alcohols from carbon dioxide and water are provided";
Algae are certainly capable of brewing up some very potent products for us out of Carbon Dioxide and a little water).
Claims: A method for the capture of CO2 from air, comprising the steps of exposing an anion exchange material to a flow of air; and releasing CO2 captured by said anion exchange material by wetting or a swing in humidity, wherein said method is accomplished without any direct energy input other than energy to move said anion exchange material.
The method ... further comprising continuously cycling said anion exchange material between exposure to air and release of captured CO2.
(And) wherein said anion exchange material captures CO2 when exposed to lower humidity and releases CO2 when exposed to higher humidity.
The method of claim 6, wherein said ion exchange resin comprises Anion I-200 ion exchange membrane material.
(The "Anion I-200" product is specified for use as well in "United States Patent 8,273,160 - Method and Apparatus for Extracting Carbon Dioxide from Air"; and, we discussed it's availability and use in our report of that slightly earlier technology. "Anion I-200" is available and is already used in industry.)
The method ... wherein said released CO2 is transferred to a sorbent (as specified, and then re-released in desired concentrations from 3% to 100%).
The method ... wherein 60% of said captured CO2 is released during said wetting or swing in humidity (and) where said captured CO2 is releasable in the absence of a pressure swing.
The method ... further comprising the step of releasing CO2 captured by said anion exchange material into a greenhouse.
Background and Field: Extracting carbon dioxide (CO2) from ambient air would make it possible to use carbon-based fuels and deal with the associated greenhouse gas emissions after the fact. Since CO2 is neither poisonous nor harmful in parts per million quantities, but creates environmental problems simply by accumulating in the atmosphere, it is possible to remove CO2 from air in order to compensate for equally sized emissions elsewhere and at different times.
Summary: The present invention provides a system, i.e. a method and apparatus for extracting carbon dioxide (CO2) from ambient air and for delivering that extracted CO2 to controlled environments."
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Now, as they go on at almost tedious length to make clear, their favored "controlled environments" are green houses and Algae cultivators - which, again, sounds good to us. We will have plenty on the Algae-based utilization of Carbon Dioxide to offer in future reports.
However, we do think all CO2-use options should be employed, as in one about which we just reported, in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Iceland, August 2012, CO2 to Gasoline and Diesel | Research & Development; concerning: "US Patent Application 20120201717 - Process and System for Producing Liquid Fuel from CO2 and Water; Date: August 9, 2012; Shwetank Singh, et. al., Iceland; Assignee: CRI, Iceland; Abstract: A process and system for producing high octane fuel from carbon dioxide and water is disclosed. The feedstock for the production line is industrial carbon dioxide and water, which may be of lower quality. The end product can be high octane gasoline, high cetane diesel or other liquid hydrocarbon mixtures suitable for driving conventional combustion engines or hydrocarbons suitable for further industrial processing or commercial use",
which can be seen as a variant on the earlier, above-cited, process of "United States Patent 8,198,338 - Process for Producing Liquid Fuel from Carbon Dioxide and Water; June 12, 2012; Inventors: Arthur M. Shulenberger, et. al., California and Iceland; Assignee: CRI EHF, Iceland"; and, which would be in addition to technologies like that disclosed in:
West Virginia Coal Association | New York City CO2 to Methane via Artificial Photosynthesis | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent Application 20120208903 - Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Methane Using Visible Light; August, 2012; Inventor: Harry D. Gafney, NY; Assignee: Research Foundation of City University of New York, NYC; Abstract: The invention relates to a method for converting carbon dioxide to methane".
The point being, if you've followed along through all of this:
We can efficiently capture Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere, and then efficiently convert that Carbon Dioxide into Methanol, Gasoline, Diesel and Methane.
Carbon Dioxide is a valuable raw material resource; and, for all our and all our children's, for our nations', sakes, we need to start thinking of it and treating it that way.