United States Patent Application: 0130078172
As we've documented now from numerous impeccable, unimpeachable sources, including, as seen in:
West Virginia Coal Association | USDOE Converts CO2 & H2O into Hydrocarbon Synthesis Gas | Research & Development; concerning: "'High-Temperature Co-Electrolysis of H2O and CO2 for Syngas Production'; 2006; United States Department of Energy; (With) the price of oil currently over $70 / barrel, synthetically-derived hydrocarbon fuels (synfuels) have become economical. ... Synfuels are typically produced from syngas - - hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO) - - using the Fischer-Tropsch process, discovered by Germany before World War II. (An) experimental research project is underway at the INL to investigate the feasibility of producing syngas by simultaneously electrolyzing steam and carbon dioxide (CO2) at high-temperature using solid oxide fuel cell technology. H2O + CO2 = H2 + CO + O2. The syngas can then be used for synthetic fuel production";
our own United States Department of Energy, Carbon Dioxide, as it arises in only a very small way, relative to natural sources of emission, such as the Earth's inexorable processes of planetary volcanism, from our essential use of Coal in the generation of truly abundant and genuinely affordable electric power, is a valuable raw material resource. As the USDOE affirms, it can be reclaimed from whatever handy source, and then be converted, recycled, via the initial production of synthesis gas, into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
However, if we wish instead to permanently "sequester" Carbon Dioxide, not just recycle it, as other impeccable sources affirm, as seen, for one example, in a report from the parent company of an esteemed United States Coal Country corporate citizen, in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Bayer Is Converting Coal Power Plant CO2 Into Plastics | Research & Development; concerning the article: "'Bayer Material Science CO2-to-Plastics Pilot Plant, Germany'; In February 2011, Bayer MaterialScience started a new pilot plant (in the) North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany for producing plastics from carbon dioxide (CO2). It will be used to develop polyurethanes from the waste gas released during power generation. ... Bayer aims to use CO2 as an alternative to production of polymer materials from fossil fuels. The CO2 (is) a substitute for the petroleum production of plastics";
we can utilize CO2 "released during power generation" for the "production of polymer materials".
All of which might lead to the question of how we might get our hands, economically, on some CO2.
Unfortunately, as folks in favor of such measures as "geologic sequestration" of Carbon Dioxide - - done, especially, at the expense of consumers of Coal-based electric power, to help Big Oil squeegee the last dregs of petroleum from nearly-depleted reservoirs, in what is euphemistically hidden behind the modesty veil of "enhanced oil recovery", or "EOR" - - don't tell you is that the costs of CO2 capture at power plants using any type of fossil fuel are extraordinarily high. As Europe's International Energy Agency confirms, in:
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/5kgggn8wk05l.pdf?expires=1364560635&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=7BFCE92796B17; "'Cost and Performance of
Carbon Dioxide Capture from Power Generation'; IEA; 2011; Since CO2 capture from power generation is an emerging technology that has not been demonstrated on a commercial scale, related cost and performance information is based on feasibility studies and pilot projects and is still uncertain. Cost and performance trends are shown based on estimates published over the last five years in major engineering studies for about 50 CO2 capture installations at power plants. Capital cost and levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) are re‐evaluated and updated to 2010 cost levels to allow for a consistent comparison. Presented data account for CO2 capture but not transportation and storage of CO2. For coal‐fired power generation, no single CO2 capture technology outperforms available alternative capture processes in terms of cost and performance. ... (Costs) of power plants with CO2 capture (are) 74% higher ... costs without capture";
using the technology now available, capturing Carbon Dioxide at a Coal-fired power plant would nearly double the cost - - the cost would increase by "74%" - - of the electricity produced.
And: That cost does not include the cost of the subsequent "transportation and storage" of the CO2.
But, the cost of just simply reclaiming Carbon Dioxide from Coal-fired power plant exhaust might still be seen as too high, even if we were, instead, wisely, to use that CO2, as in our above citations concerning: "High-Temperature Co-Electrolysis of H2O and CO2 for Syngas Production" and "Bayer Material Science CO2-to-Plastics Pilot Plant", as a raw material for the synthesis of hydrocarbon fuels and valuable plastics.
West Virginia University could well have the solution to that problem, though, as seen in excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to the just-published:
"United States Patent Application 20130078172 - Layered Solid Sorbents for Carbon Dioxide Capture
Layered Solid Sorbents For Carbon Dioxide Capture - WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CORPORATION
Date: March 28, 2013
Inventors: Bingyun Li, et. al., West Virginia and Pennsylvania
Assignee: West Virginia University Research Corporation, Morgantown
Abstract: A solid sorbent for the capture and the transport of carbon dioxide gas is provided having at least one first layer of a positively charged material that is polyethylenimine or poly(allylamine hydrochloride), that captures at least a portion of the gas, and at least one second layer of a negatively charged material that is polystyrenesulfonate or poly(acryclic acid), that transports the gas, wherein the second layer of material is in juxtaposition to, attached to, or crosslinked with the first layer for forming at least one bilayer, and a solid substrate support having a porous surface, wherein one or more of the bilayers is/are deposited on the surface of and/or within the solid substrate. A method of preparing and using the solid sorbent is provided.
(We interrupt here to attempt explanation of what is going on, and what the rest of the Disclosure is about.
At least some of our readers might be familiar with term or concept of "membrane separation" technology. In sum, you can have a relatively thin piece of a given material, the molecular structure of that material being such that the "membrane" allows the molecules of some compounds to pass through it, but not others. And, the membrane can thus serve as a passive "filter", as it were, to sort fluid compounds one from another. They are, in fact, sometimes called "molecular sieves"; and, more about them can be learned via:
http://pac.iupac.org/publications/pac/pdf/1995/pdf/6706x0993.pdf; concerning: "'Industrial application of membrane separation processes'; Deutsche Carbone AG, Membran Trennverfahren GFT; During the past two decades membrane separation processes have been developed and optimized for even large scale industrial applications. The most important of these processes include: (i) microfiltration and ultrafiltration for purification of aqueous streams, concentration and recovery of valuable products; (ii) reverse osmosis for the production of demineralized or potable water; (iii) electrodialysis for the concentration or removal of dissolved ions; (iv) gas separation for splitting gas streams, removal or recovery of specific gases; (v) pervaporation for separation and concentration of liquid mixtures ... . Whereas the first three of these processes are well established and have reached a high degree of maturity, the last two ones are still in developing stage, although development is fairly fast".
And, one example of using "membrane separation processes" can, as explained via:
http://www.benthamscience.com/cheng/samples/cheng%201-1/Sandra%20E.%20Kentish.pdf; concerning:
"'Carbon Dioxide Separation through Polymeric Membrane Systems for Flue Gas Applications'; Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Australia; 2007; Abstract: The capture ... of carbon dioxide has been identified as one potential solution to greenhouse gas driven climate change. Efficient separation technologies are required for removal of carbon dioxide from flue gas streams to allow this solution to be widely implemented. A developing technology is membrane gas separation, which is more compact, energy efficient and possibly more economical than mature technologies, such as solvent absorption. ... The energy efficiency and simplicity of membrane gas separation makes it extremely attractive for carbon dioxide capture. The ability to selectively pass one component in a mixture while rejecting others describes the perfect separation device. (This) review will focus on advances in polymeric membrane design for improved carbon dioxide separation";
be the energy-efficient separation and collection of Carbon Dioxide from a mixed stream of gases, specifically "flue gas streams".
That is the essence of our subject herein, WVU's "United States Patent Application 20130078172".)
Government Interests: Certain embodiments of this invention were made with Government support in conjunction with the National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, Pa., under RES contract number DE-FE0004000 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The Government may have certain rights in the invention.
Claims: A solid sorbent comprising: at least one first layer of a material that captures at least a portion of a gas; and at least one second layer of a second material that transports said gas, said second layer of material is in juxtaposition to, attached to, or crosslinked with said first layer such that said first layer of material and said second layer of material form one bilayer; and a solid substrate support having a porous surface, wherein said bilayer is deposited on the surface of said substrate or deposited into said solid substrate.
(Again, we must interrupt. In addition to membranes that can filter out certain molecules from a fluid stream, there are also membranes that, under one energetic influence or another, can actively transport those molecules from one side of the membrane to the other. More can be learned via:
Membrane transport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Facilitated diffusion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; "Facilitated diffusion (also known as facilitated transport or passive-mediated transport) is a process of passive transport ... . Facilitated diffusion is the spontaneous passage of molecules or ions across a biological membrane passing through specific transmembrane integral proteins. The facilitated diffusion may occur either across biological or through aqueous compartments of an organism. Various attempts have been made by engineers to mimic the process of facilitated transport in synthetic (i.e., non-biological) membranes for use in industrial-scale gas and liquid separations, but these have met with limited success to date, most often for reasons related to poor carrier stability and/or loss of carrier from the membrane".
WVU, herein, has surpassed the "limited success". And, we remind you of another, similar technology for the separation of CO2 from fluid streams using a multi-layer molecular sieve, or filter, as in our report of:
West Virginia Coal Association | US Navy Recovers Environmental CO2 for Hydrocarbon Synthesis | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 8,313,557 - Recovery of CO2 from Seawater/Aqueous Bicarbonate Systems; 2012; Assignee: The United States of America as Represented by the Secretary of the Navy; Abstract: The present invention is generally directed to a system for recovering CO2 from seawater or aqueous bicarbonate solutions using a gas permeable membrane with multiple layers. At elevated pressures, gaseous CO2 and bound CO2 in the ionic form of bicarbonate and carbonate diffuse from the seawater or bicarbonate solution through the multiple layers of the membrane".)
The solid sorbent ... having alternating layers of said first layer of material and said second layer of material forming more than one bilayer (and) wherein said first layer of said material is different than said second layer of said material.
The solid sorbent ... wherein said first layer of material is a positively charged material and wherein said second layer of material is an oppositely charged material relative to the first layer of material (and) wherein the first layer of material is a positively charged polyelectrolyte and wherein said second layer of material is a negatively charged polyelectrolyte (and) wherein said first layer of material is a polymer and wherein said second layer of material is a polymer.
The solid sorbent ... wherein said first layer of said material is selected from the group consisting of polyethylenimine and poly(allylamine hydrochloride), and wherein said second layer of material is selected from the group consisting of polystyrenesulfonate and poly(acryclic acid) (and) wherein said first layer is a positively charged polymer and wherein said second layer is an oppositely charged polymer relative to the polymer of said first layer (and) wherein said solid substrate support is selected from the group consisting of polymethylmethacrylate, silica, silicone, glass, a metal, and a colloid of an inorganic and organic material.
The solid sorbent ... wherein the first layer of said material is an amine polymer (as specified,) and said second layer of material is polystyrenesulfonate.
A method of preparing a solid sorbent comprising: employing electrostatic layer by layer nanoassembly of drawing a positively charged polymer in aqueous media through a porous sorbent support material under sufficient vacuum pressure for a period of time ranging from one minute to greater than fifteen minutes for forming a positively charged layer of said positively charged polymer on the surface of and/or within said porous sorbent support material resulting in a treated porous sorbent support material; rinsing said treated porous sorbent support material with water; employing electrostatic layer by layer nanoassembly of drawing a negatively charged polymer in aqueous media through said treated porous sorbent support material under sufficient vacuum pressure for a period of time ranging from 1 minute to greater than fifteen minutes for forming a negatively charged layer of said negatively charged polymer in juxtaposition to, attached to or crosslinked with said positively charged layer resulting in the formation of one bilayer of said positively charged layer and said negatively charged layer; and rinsing said solid sorbent having said bilayer resulting in one cycle of deposition of said bilayer on said surface of and/or within said porous sorbent support material; and optionally repeating said above steps for forming one or more successive cycles of bilayer deposition; and optionally including wherein said layer formation is based on interactions of hydrogen bonding; and optionally including wherein said layers go through post-assembly treatment including crosslinking and deprotonation treatment of said positively charged polymers via pH shift.
(As you can see, WVU knows how to make this thing. The claims also go into great detail about the chemical compositions of the two conjoined membranes, which compositions include some pretty common stuff, like "aspartic acid" and the amino acid "arginine". Most of the chemistry seems to center on methacrylate and ammonium, which is pretty common stuff, although the formulations of it all are far, far beyond our limited understanding.)
A method of capturing carbon dioxide from a pollutant source comprising: passing an effluent stream of gas containing carbon dioxide through or in contact with a solid sorbent comprising at least one first layer of a material that captures at least a portion of a gas; and at least one second layer of a second material that transports said gas, said second layer of material is in juxtaposition to, attached to, or crosslinked with said first layer such that said first layer of material and said second layer of material form one bilayer; and a solid substrate support having a porous surface, wherein said bilayer is deposited on the surface of said substrate or deposited into said solid substrate; and capturing said carbon dioxide on said surface of said substrate or depositing said carbon dioxide into said solid substrate.
The method ... including wherein said first layer of material is a positively charged material and wherein said second layer of material is an oppositely charged material relative to the first layer of material.
The method ... including wherein said first layer of material is a polymer and wherein said second layer of material is a polymer.
The method ... wherein said solid substrate support is selected from the group consisting of polymethylmethacrylate, silica, silicone, glass, a metal, and a colloid of an inorganic and organic material (and) wherein said porosity of said solid substrate support has a diameter (specified).
Background and Summary: Nano-layered sorbents for CO2 capture, for the first time, were developed using layer-by-layer nanoassembly. A CO2-adsorbing polymer and a strong polyelectrolyte were alternately immobilized within a porous sorbent substrate. The solid sorbents of the present invention have fast CO2 adsorption and desorption properties and their CO2 capture capacity increased with increasing number of nano-layers of the CO2-adsorbing polymer.
According to the Energy Information Agency, approximately 40% of the U.S. CO2 emission is associated with electricity generation. Consequently, the capture and sequestration of CO2 from power-plant flue-gas streams is an essential scenario for carbon management. Current post-combustion CO2 capture and sequestration technologies require three main steps: (i) capture CO2 from the stack gas, (ii) compress the nearly pure CO2 to about 2,000 psi, and (iii) permanently "bury" or store the CO2 in certain geological structures deep in the earth. These processes can require up to one-third of the produced power-plant energy, which would otherwise be used as electrical energy for customers. Most of the energy cost of the three steps lies with step (i), i.e. CO2 capture.
Studies have indicated that solid sorbents may have the potential to require substantially less energy (e.g. a reduction of 30-50%) for regeneration than the current MEA-based CO2 scrubbing processes.
The present invention provides advanced solid sorbents that are fabricated using a recently evolved nanotechnology, i.e. electrostatic layer-by-layer (LBL) nanoassembly along with a vacuum or pressure applied to draw the ionic liquid monomers or polymers through the sorbent material. The LBL technique of this invention may be scaled to very large quantities. In the present invention, a CO2-adsorbing amine compound, polyethylenimine or PEI, was successfully nano-layered into a porous supporting substrate, and the developed solid sorbents show advanced CO2 capture properties."
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There is even quite a lot more to it, and, in honesty, we were nearly blinded trying to parse through it all and extract some meaningful passages that might be of specific interest, or be at least marginally intelligible, to our readers.
Much of the Disclosure, in fact, is devoted to identifying the chemical formulations of what, and to exposition of how, the two membranes, the one that captures the CO2 from the flue gas and the one that transports CO2 to the other side for further disposition, are to be made.
Once that complexity is overcome, though, what results is a structure, that, with minimal input of energy, and thus at great economy, is able to extract, and then produce, from raw Coal-fired power plant flue gas, a relatively pure, or concentrated, stream or flow of Carbon Dioxide.
And, we remind you, that, as seen in our report of:
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; 2012; Assignee: CRI (Carbon Recycling International), 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";
we can then convert that Carbon Dioxide, so efficiently recovered from Coal-fired power plant flue gas by West Virginia University's process of "United States Patent Application 20130078172 - Layered Solid Sorbents for Carbon Dioxide Capture", into some stuff we seem willing to fight what has become an almost endless series of foreign military engagements, at some huge expense of US taxpayer money and US service personnel lives, to keep ourselves supplied with; and/or, as seen in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Columbia University Converts CO2 to Ethylene | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent Application 20130048506 - Electrodes for High Efficiency Aqueous Reduction of CO2; February 28, 2013; Assignee: The Trustees of Columbia University; Abstract: An electrolytic cell system to convert carbon dioxide to a hydrocarbon (and) wherein the hydrocarbon (produced) is ethylene";
we can also convert that CO2 into a hydrocarbon raw material well-suited for the further synthesis of a wide variety of commercially-valuable plastics, wherein the Carbon Dioxide consumed in it's synthesis would be forever, and productively, "sequestered".
And, as we will see in at least one report soon to follow, if we elect to consume the Carbon Dioxide so cost effectively extracted from Coal-fired power plant flue gas by WVU's process of "United States Patent Application 20130078172" in the synthesis, as in Columbia University's process of "United States Patent Application 20130048506", of Ethylene, that Ethylene then makes it possible to productively and profitably consume and utilize even more Carbon Dioxide.