United States Patent Application: 0130048506
In a fairly recent dispatch, now accessible via:
West Virginia Coal Association | Ethane Cracker Realities | Research & Development;
we addressed the Wheeling, WV, newspaper article: "Wanted: Ethane Cracker; State leaders pushing for facility during gas industry convention"; wherein it was related that a company was considering the construction of a facility, in the northern panhandle of West Virginia, that would take Ethane from Shale Gas and "crack" that Ethane to form, primarily, "Ethylene", which was somewhat inaccurately said to be "the basis for the plastics industry".
Although Ethylene is far from being the only "basis for the plastics industry", it is still, nonetheless, a genuinely important raw material for the manufacture of some essential, high-volume plastics, and it is an industrially-important hydrocarbon of high value.
Further, despite what in many genuinely-informed geological circles - -
- - as reported in Canada, where the press, though at times perhaps a little too "liberal", is, nonetheless, genuinely free:
The Tyee – 'The Shale Gale Is a Retirement Party'; "'The Shale Gale Is a Retirement Party - So concludes an expert analyst of the natural gas boom. Brace for bust.', wherein it's reported that one petroleum geologist with several decades of experience "sees the shale gas frenzy as 'magical thinking' as well as a full-blown commercial failure" and "doesn't view natural gas as "a bridge to anywhere'. The article goes on to report, that:"the shale boom became a verifiable mania in the mid-2000s. With heavy promotional hoopla and flush with easy credit from Wall Street, companies such as Chesapeake and Encana individually acquired land bases as large as the State of West Virginia. ... Formations blasted open by water, sand and chemicals often yield great gushers of gas for six months but then drop off as dramatically as a Wall Street market crash. In many shale gas plays, production declines average more than 40 per cent a year". Further: "industry and industry-funded academics often boasted that the so-called shale gale could spew enough methane to meet North America's energy needs for 100 years. But real-time depletion rates and problematic geology (not all shale resources are equal) have totally rewritten those optimistic claims. The Marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania and New York, for example, was supposed to hold 410 trillion cubic feet of gas or nearly 20 years worth of natural gas. (The U.S. burns about 22 TCF a year)". And: "in 2011 the U.S. Geological Survey slashed that estimate by 80 per cent to 84 trillion cubic feet, or a four-year supply. Other studies "show that commercially recoverable per-well shale gas reserves may be considerably smaller than some believe"; - -
- - is known as "magical thinking" about the true size of our Shale Gas resource and the amount of Shale Gas we will actually be able to extract, plans seem to continue being made for, and hopes pinned on, the use of Ethane, extracted from Shale Gas, as a raw material from which to make Ethylene as a raw material which could feed an American plastics industry renaissance.
As noted in that dispatch, and as we will further document in reports to follow, if it is Ethylene we want and need, the technology exists to make that Ethylene out of by far our most abundant fossil resource: Coal.
But, there is what some might see as even a better way; a way which would not only ensure sustainability for centuries to come, but, which would help to silence the avaricious advocates of Cap and Trade taxation.
As we've seen, for just two examples, in our reports of:.
West Virginia Coal Association | 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; Abstract: Amethod 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"; and:
West Virginia Coal Association | New Jersey CO2 to High-Energy Alcohol | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent Application 20120132538 - Electrochemical Production of Butanol from Carbon Dioxide and Water; 2012; Inventors: Emily Barton Cole, Andrew Bocarsly, et. al., NJ and DC;
(Though not disclosed in this early publication, there is little doubt that the ultimate Assignee of rights will be the company, Liquid Light.); Description and Summary: The present disclosure generally relates to the field of electrochemical reactions, and more particularly to methods and/or systems for electrochemical production of butanol from carbon dioxide and water";
it is perfectly feasible to, using electricity, preferably environmentally-derived electricity, to drive the needed reactions, convert Carbon Dioxide, in solution with Water, into valuable alcohols.
In a number of other reports, such as:
West Virginia Coal Association | Columbia University Practical Extraction of Atmospheric CO2 | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 8,246,731 - Systems and Methods for Extraction of Carbon Dioxide from Air; 2012; Inventors: Klaus Lackner and Frank Zeman, NY; Assignee: The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York; Abstract: The present invention describes methods and systems for extracting, capturing, reducing, storing, sequestering, or disposing of carbon dioxide (CO2), particularly from the air. A system for extracting or capturing carbon dioxide from atmospheric air ... . The present invention presents a preliminary design for a plant that used wet scrubber techniques to remove CO2 directly from air.
The capture of CO2 from air allows the CO2 to be recovered; thereafter, renewable energy can be used to convert the CO2 (and water) back into a new hydrocarbon";
we've documented that New York City's Columbia University has been at work developing and refining an array of technologies that will enable the efficient extraction of Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere around us, thus making totally unjustifiable any "push" to saddle our vital Coal-based producers of genuinely abundant and truly affordable electric power with parasitic Carbon capture devices.
More than that, as Columbia intimates in the full Disclosure of the above "US Patent 8,246,731", such efficiently-captured Carbon Dioxide can then, through the employment of "renewable energy", be converted back into "new hydrocarbons".
And, as Columbia University themselves herein reveal, one of those "hydrocarbons" into which Carbon Dioxide can be transformed, via an electro-synthesis process much like those disclosed in our above citations of "United States Patent Application 20120132538 - Electrochemical Production of Butanol from Carbon Dioxide and Water" and "United States Patent 3,959,094 - Electrolytic Synthesis of Methanol from CO2"; the seemingly-desirable, as in our above citation of the article "Wanted: Ethane Cracker; State leaders pushing for facility during gas industry convention", Ethylene.
Comment follows excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to the very recent:
"US Patent Application 20130048506 - Electrodes for High Efficiency Aqueous Reduction of CO2
Date: February 28, 2013
Inventor: Ed Chen, NY
Assignee: The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
Abstract: An electrolytic cell system to convert carbon dioxide to a hydrocarbon that includes a first electrode including a substrate having a metal porous dendritic structure applied thereon; a second electrode, and an electrical input adapted for coupling to a source of electricity, for applying a voltage across the first electrode and the second electrode.
(Dendritic - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary; "branching like a tree". The above "dendritic" just means that it has, in other words, a lot of crevices and protrusions, and, thus, like the branches and photosynthetic leaves on a tree, a lot of surface area for promoting the desired electrochemical reactions with CO2 and H2O.)
Claims: An electrolytic cell system to convert carbon dioxide to a hydrocarbon comprising: (a) a first electrode including a substrate having a metal porous dendritic structure applied thereon; (b) a second electrode; and (c) an electrical input adapted for coupling to a source of electricity, for applying a voltage across the first electrode and the second electrode.
The electrolytic cell system ... wherein the metal is copper.
The electrolytic cell system ... wherein the substrate is selected from copper, copper foil, glassy carbon and titanium.
The electrolytic cell system ... wherein at least one of the first electrode and the second electrode is at least partially saturated with carbon dioxide.
The electrolytic cell system ... further comprising an electrolyte source capable of being introduced into a region in between the first electrode and the second electrode of the electrolytic cell system (and) wherein the electrolyte is selected from a bicarbonate salt, sodium chloride, carbonic acid, hydrogen, potassium and methanol.
The electrolytic cell system ... further comprising a membrane to dissolve carbon dioxide in the electrolyte (and) further comprising a conduit to pass carbon dioxide directly to the surface of the first electrode.
The electrolytic cell system ... comprising a source of a metal porphryrin salt capable of being introduced into a region in between the first electrode and the second electrode of the electrolytic cell system (and) wherein the metal porphyrin salt is a metal chlorophyllin salt (and) wherein the metal chlorphyllin salt is copper chlorophyllin.
An electrode for an electrolytic cell system comprising a substrate with a metal porous dendritic structure applied thereon.
The electrode ... wherein the metal is copper.
A method of converting carbon dioxide to a hydrocarbon comprising: providing an electrolytic cell that includes (a) a first electrode including a substrate having a metal porous dendritic structure applied thereon; (b) a second electrode, and (c) an electrical input adapted for coupling to a source of electricity, for applying a voltage across the first electrode and the second electrode; introducing a source of carbon dioxide to the electrolytic cell; and applying the voltage across the first electrode and the second electrode.
The method ... wherein the copper dendritic structure is prepared by a process that includes adding copper chlorophyllin to the electrolytic cell and electro-depositing the copper chlorophyllin on the first electrode.
The method ... wherein the carbon dioxide is obtained from an air stream, a combustion exhaust stream, or a pre-existing carbon dioxide source.
The method ... wherein the hydrocarbon (produced) is ethylene.
Background and Summary: Existing carbon infrastructure costs make a transition from a fossil fuel economy particularly difficult. Thus, intermediate solutions which abate CO2 emissions while also producing valuable products would be particularly useful.
The use of electrolytic cells in the reduction of CO2 to methane and other hydrocarbons, electrolytically, at room temperatures, with a saturated solution of carbon dioxide and an electrolyte, can be a highly economic means of producing natural gas from carbon dioxide.
(In other words, we can synthesize a substitute "natural gas", that we don't have to drill and frack for, out of Carbon Dioxide extracted from the air around us. See, for just one example, our report of:
West Virginia Coal Association | Panasonic Corporation Converts More CO2 into Methane | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent Application 20120292199 - Method for Reducing Carbon Dioxide; 2012; Assignee: Panasonic Corporation, (Japan); Abstract: The method for reducing carbon dioxide of the present disclosure includes a step (a) and a step (b) as follows. A step (a) of preparing an electrochemical cell (as specified, and)applying a negative voltage and a positive voltage to the working electrode and the counter electrode, respectively, to reduce the carbon dioxide (and wherein) at least one compound selected from the group consisting of methane, ethylene, ethane ... is produced".)
One aspect of the presently disclosed subject matter provides an electrolytic cell system to convert carbon dioxide to a hydrocarbon (e.g., ethylene) ... . Another aspect of the presently disclosed subject matter provides a method of converting carbon dioxide to a hydrocarbon (e.g., ethylene) that includes providing an electrolytic cell that includes a first electrode including a substrate having a metal porous dendritic structure applied thereon; a second electrode, and an electrical input adapted for coupling to a source of electricity, for applying a voltage across the first electrode and the second electrode; introducing a source of carbon dioxide to the electrolytic cell; and applying the voltage across the first electrode and the second electrode.
In one embodiment, the carbon dioxide is obtained from an air stream, a combustion exhaust stream, or a pre-existing carbon dioxide source."
-------------------------
In other words, and in sum, according herein to Columbia University:
If it is, in fact, Ethylene we want, we don't have to drill, frack and crack to get it.
We can, in an efficient process, synthesize Ethylene from Carbon Dioxide.