SolarFuel GmbH - SolarFuel GmbH - Electricity from renewable sources
As we've documented for you now in many reports, the art and science for capturing Carbon Dioxide and then efficiently converting that CO2 into fuels and chemicals is being reduced to initial industrial practice at multiple sites in Europe.
That fact is irrefutable, since it has been openly reported, as can be learned via:
Embassy News 2008 | Embassy of the United States Reykjavik, Iceland; "This site is managed by the U.S. Department of State. ... (US) Ambassador Carol van Voorst recently visited the site of Icelandic American firm Carbon Recycling International, which is taking carbon dioxide emissions and converting it to liquid fuel to be used in cars. The process utilizes the clean electricity in Iceland to convert the waste emissions into the new resource. The Ambassador toured the prototype with American CEO K.C. Tran and Icelandic Chief Scientist Dr. Oddur Ingolfsson";
by what should be seen as an impeccable authority, our own United States Government - - in a news release issued, not by our US Department of Energy, but, by our US Department of State - - that industrial exhaust gas CO2 is, in Europe, now being captured and then converted into "liquid fuel to be used in cars".
We have, of course, presented you now with many reports concerning the above "Carbon Recycling International", whose first CO2-to-Methanol industrial facility is named after United States scientist George Olah, a Nobel Prize-winning scholar at the University of Southern California about whom, as for just one instance seen in:
West Virginia Coal Association | California Recycles Coal Power Plant Carbon Dioxide | Research & Development; which is centered on: "United States Patent Application 20090285739 - Eliminating the Carbon Footprint of Human Activities; MITIGATING OR ELIMINATING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES - Olah, George A.; 2009; Inventors: George Olah and Surya Prakash, CA; (The Assignee, not yet published, will presumably be the University of Southern California.) Abstract: A method for neutralizing or reducing the carbon footprint from carbon dioxide emissions due to human activities related to the combustion or use of carbon containing fuels. This method includes an initial step of capturing carbon dioxide and then chemically recycling it to form and provide a permanent inexhaustible supply of carbon containing fuels or products, which subsequently can be combusted or used without increasing the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. Thus, the current lifestyles that rely extensively on conventional carbon containing fuels and products can continue indefinitely without harming the environment to preserve and even improve the earth's atmosphere for the benefit of future generations";
we've many times reported.
And, we've also documented that Germany, as well, is recycling Carbon Dioxide into some useful sorts of things, at a pilot plant, as we reported via:
West Virginia Coal Association | Bayer Is Converting Coal Power Plant CO2 Into Plastics | Research & Development; concerning the news article: "'Bayer Material Science CO2-to-Plastics Pilot Plant, Germany'; Chemicals Technology; In February 2011, Bayer Material Science 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. The process technology was developed ... to produce polymer materials from CO2. Bayer aims to use CO2 as an alternative to production of polymer materials from fossil fuels";being operated by a multi-national company very familiar to many of us in US Coal Country.
Herein, we learn that yet another company is, in Germany, making a business out of capturing Carbon Dioxide, and then, using environmentally-derived energy to drive the process, converting that CO2 into the simple hydrocarbon, a substitute for natural gas, Methane.
Comment and additional links to exposition of the technology follow excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"Cutting-Edge Technology for the Long-Term Storage of Electricity from Renewable Sources
Solar Fuel Technology GmbH & Co KG was founded in Salzburg, Austria in 2007.
An extensive study and evaluation of potential photon to fuel technologies has been carried out at the Joannes Kepler University Linz/Austria. The combination of renewable production of electricity with subsequent electrolytic production of Hydrogen and methanation of CO2 + Hydrogen was identified as the solution of choice.
We are represented in Germany by SolarFuel GmbH with its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany ... .
The ongoing further development of our technology and application concept is being driven forward in intensive collaboration with two leading research institutes in Germany:
The Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Wurttemberg: (which) acts as the bridge between fundamental university research and industrial practise; the model is to develop technologies for using renewable energies in order to secure the supply of heat, electricity and fuel in the long term and in a sustainable manner.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology: (which) focuses on application-oriented research and development in the field of the use of renewable energy sources and energy supply systems. Its work ranges from theoretical reports through to experimental studies and field tests and the development of new devices.
The solution - SolarFuel GmbH - Electricity from renewable sources: In nature, the energy-free raw materials CO2 and water are used to store solar energy: During photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to convert these raw materials into biomass, thus forming chemically stored energy.
The efficiency of photon-to-biofuel in nature is less than 0.5 percent.
(We make note here of the above efficiency percentage of using natural photosynthetic processes to manufacture "biofuel" from Carbon Dioxide. We will be confirming that value and returning to discussion of it in future reports concerning US Department of Energy-sponsored CO2 recycling achievements.)
SolarFuel uses electric power to directly convert the energy-free raw materials CO2 and water into synthetic natural gas: In the first stage of electrolysis, water is separated into hydrogen and oxygen. In the second stage, hydrogen is directly converted into methane (CH4) with CO2. Here, the energy density increases by factor 3, and a marketable and manageable energy source is created which is of standard quality and which can be fed directly into the natural gas grid. The attainable level of efficiency is over 60 percent.
Successful Test Operation Since November 2009:
The basic feasibility of the method was successfully proven in a pilot plant on the kW scale. Without optimisation measures, an overall power-to-gas efficiency of 40 percent was proven even here. The surrounding air acts as the CO2 source. The plant was completed by the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg, ZSW.
The product is natural gas which conforms to DVGW and DIN standards, and is used for the direct fueling of serially produced cars."------------------------
As we intend to document in future reports, the "cars" using this synthetic, CO2-based "natural gas", as nutty and hazardous as we here think that practice to be, are, we believe, based on information from other news sources, being "serially produced" by Audi.
But, we want to point something out: They are, in Germany, using solar energy to capture Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere; and, then, at an efficiency of something around 120 times that of natural photosynthesis, again using solar energy, converting that CO2, with Hydrogen from Water, into Methane.
There are, no doubt, among our patriotic US Coal Country readers, some former US servicemen and servicewomen who did tours at one or the other of our military bases in cool, cloudy Germany.
And, you, especially, will know, that, if they can, in Germany, use solar energy to successfully capture CO2 from the atmosphere and then convert that CO2 into Methane, then, we can danged-well do it here, in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and in all the other states in US Coal Country where the revenue-scrounging specter of Cap and Trade CO2 taxes threaten the core of our income and our very way of life.
As cloudy as we often are, we get at least as much sunlight pouring down on us as they do in Germany.
Of course, we get almost as much rain, too, which paves the way to obtaining the Hydrogen needed, as in the above "SolarFuel uses electric power to directly convert the energy-free raw materials CO2 and water into synthetic natural gas: In the first stage of electrolysis, water is separated into hydrogen and oxygen. In the second stage, hydrogen is directly converted into methane (CH4) with CO2". As seen in our report of:
West Virginia Coal Association | Germany & Pennsylvania Hydrogen from Hydropower | Research & Development; concerning, in part: "United States Patent 6,864,596 - Hydrogen Production from Hydro Power; 2005; Assignees: Voith Siemens Hydropower Generation GmbH and Incorporated, Germany and York, PA; Abstract: A turbine installation configured for large scale hydrogen production includes a foundation structure separating an upper elevation headwater from a lower elevation tailwater. An electrolyzer is electrically coupled to the generator for receiving the electrical power and producing hydrogen. A control system is capable of sensing the remaining hydrogen storage capacity and performing an economic comparison analysis to determine whether operating the turbine to produce additional hydrogen or to supply a utility grid with power provides the highest economic return".But, concerning the SolarFuel technology for synthesizing Methane from CO2, it is spelled out in:
"United States Patent Application: 0130041051 - Method for Producing a Methane-rich Product Gas and Reactor System Usable for that Purpose
Date: February 14, 2013
Inventors: Ulrich Zuberbuhler, et. al., Germany
Assignee: Solar Fuel, Gmbh, Stuttgart
Abstract: The invention relates to a method for producing a methane-rich product gas, in which a starting gas containing hydrogen and carbon dioxide is catalytically methanated ... .
Claims: Method for producing a methane-rich product gas, in which a starting gas containing hydrogen and carbon dioxide is catalytically methanated under (specified and defined operating conditions).
Method ... wherein at least a portion of the hydrogen contained in the starting gas is produced particularly by electrolysis by collecting an electrical load, and the condition relates to the collected load.
Method ... wherein the (specified parameters and conditions are monitored and adjusted in order to obtain) the lowest energy expenditure.
Reactor system for producing a methane-rich product gas from a starting gas containing hydrogen and carbon dioxide, with at least two reactor stages which comprise a catalyst and are connected one after the other, a monitoring device for monitoring a criterion relating to the composition of the product gas, a control device coupled to the monitoring device, and at least one setting device controlled by the control device, for (making any needed adjustments.)
Reactor system ... wherein the at least two reactor stages differ in their construction (and) wherein a difference in the construction consists in the mechanical design, the type of heat removal and/or the type of catalyst used.
Reactor system ... which can be coupled ... to a device for generating hydrogen by means of electrical energy (and) which can be coupled and in particular is coupled to a device for producing carbon dioxide, particularly via a gas scrubber.
Methane-rich gas mixture, produced according to a method ... or with a reactor system according to (the Claims herein).
Background and Field: The invention relates to a method for producing a methane-rich product gas, in which a starting gas containing hydrogen and carbon dioxide is catalytically methanated under the influence of at least one settable parameter in at least two stages, and at least one criterion relating to the composition of the product gas is monitored, wherein the criterion is fulfilled under a condition influencing the method, as well as to a reactor system that is suitable for this purpose, and to a product gas produced in this manner.
Methanation methods of this type are known. They are carried out, for example, by means of reactor systems which comprise, for example, two solid bed reactors connected one after the other, which are provided with nickel-containing catalysts. A starting gas which contains hydrogen and carbon dioxide in a stoichiometric ratio which is substantially suitable for the methane production, and which, moreover, can additionally comprise proportions of carbon monoxide, methane, other hydrocarbons as well as contaminants in the form of various minor components and inert gases (for example, N2), is fed, at a predefined temperature and at a predefined pressure, to the first solid bed reactor (first methanation stage), in which the following processes, which in total form CH4, occur (including:)
CO2 + 4H2 = CH4 + 2H2O, the CO2 methanation.
In this manner, after the first methanation stage, a certain methane proportion is obtained in this gas exiting said stage. For an additional increase in the methane proportion, the second methanation stage, which is arranged downstream, is used. Using known means, water and optionally excess reactants can be removed from the gas exiting the second stage, to obtain a product gas having a more than 90% methane proportion.
The methane-rich product gas produced with this method can be used to feed into various uses, as a "synthetic" mineral gas, with an appropriately high methane proportion. Thus, it is possible to provide that a product gas is fed into existing mineral gas networks.
(Here's an example of something else the "methane-rich product gas produced" herein from Carbon Dioxide could be "fed into":
West Virginia Coal Association | Standard Oil 1949 CO2 + CH4 + H2O = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 2,460,508 - Method and Means for Hydrocarbon Synthesis; 1949; Standard Oil Company; This invention relates to the synthesis of hydrocarbons ... and it pertains more particularly to an improved method and means for producing normally liquid hydrocarbons by reacting hydrogen and carbon monoxide over catalysts ... . More specifically it relates to hydrocarbon synthesis with methane as the raw material. When methane ... is reformed by direct combustion with oxygen, a certain amount of excess heat is available ... . Carbon dioxide can be incorporated in the feed gas in quantities sufficient to absorb excess heat by reacting it endothermically with a portion of the (methane). (It) is desirable to feed to the reforming operation a gas comprising methane, oxygen and carbon dioxide. Claims: The process of synthesizing hydrocarbons from hydrogen and carbon monoxide mixtures produced by converting (Methane) with carbon dioxide and oxygen in a substantially thermally balanced reaction";
wherein the Methane produced via the process of our subject, "US Patent Application 0130041051 - Method for Producing a Methane-rich Product Gas and Reactor System Usable for that Purpose", from Carbon Dioxide, can be reacted with even more Carbon Dioxide in order to form a blend of "hydrogen and carbon monoxide" suitable "for producing normally liquid hydrocarbons".)
The conversion of the carbon dioxide in the first reactor stage is approximately 95% ... : the conversion of the carbon dioxide in the second reactor stage is slightly more than 90% ... , so that in the end the methane content in the methanated gas mixture is approximately 99%.
The resulting gas mixture with high methane content can be used directly as fuel for vehicles, or it can be fed directly into the mineral gas network."
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Carbon Dioxide - - as it is emitted in only a small way, relative to natural and uncontrollable, non-taxable, sources of emission, such as volcanoes, from our economically essential use of Coal in the generation of abundant, reliable, and genuinely-affordable electric power - - is a valuable raw material resource.
We can, as confirmed and detailed herein, reclaim Carbon Dioxide from whatever handy source, and, using only Water as an additional raw material, in processes driven entirely by freely-available, Carbon-free environmental energy, then convert that reclaimed Carbon Dioxide, as they are now in Germany, into a substitute natural gas we don't have to drill and frack for:
Methane.