We remind you of an earlier report, as accessible via:
Germany Awarded 2011 CO2 Recycling US Patent | Research & Development | News; concerning:
"United States Patent 7,989,507 - Production of Fuel ... Utilizing Waste Carbon Dioxide; August, 2011; Inventor: Bruce Rising, Florida; Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft (AG), Munich, Germany; Abstract: The present invention is directed to a method for utilizing CO2 waste comprising recovering carbon dioxide from an industrial process that produces a waste stream comprising carbon dioxide (and, which) further includes producing hydrogen using a renewable energy resource and producing a hydrocarbon material utilizing the produced hydrogen and the recovered carbon dioxide. The process ... wherein the producing hydrogen is done by electrolysis of water using electricity generated from the renewable energy resource, and wherein the renewable energy resource comprises wind or solar energy ... .The process ... wherein the producing hydrogen further comprises producing oxygen as a by-product and using the oxygen in a downstream process. The process ... further comprising using electricity produced from the renewable energy resource to reduce an amount of carbon dioxide to a first amount of carbon monoxide and oxygen. The process ... wherein the oxygen is utilized in the gasification of a carbon feedstock to produce a second amount of carbon monoxide, and wherein the second amount of carbon monoxide is utilized in a downstream process. The process ,,, wherein at least one of the first amount or the second amount of the carbon monoxide and the produced hydrogen are converted to methanol via a catalytic process. The present invention relates to a method and system for producing fuel materials from waste carbon dioxide using renewable resources, and more particularly to a method and system for producing fuel materials from carbon dioxide recovered from a waste stream of an industrial process and hydrogen produced using renewable energy resources. The inventors of the present invention have developed a novel method and system for utilizing waste carbon dioxide for the production of useful fuel materials. In one aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides a novel, efficient, and economical method and system for producing useful fuel materials, i.e. methane, methanol carbon monoxide, syngas, gasoline products, and/or other fuel materials, from carbon dioxide recovered from carbon dioxide-containing waste streams via hydrogen produced by renewable energy resources";
wherein it was seen that the German industrial giant, Siemens AG, had, as confirmed by technical experts in the employ of our United States Government, developed practicable technology whereby "renewable" energy "resouces", such as "wind or solar" could be harnessed to drive the conversion of Carbon Dioxide, as "recovered from a wastes stream of an industrial process", in combination with Hydrogen extracted from water, into such seemingly-needful things as "methane, methanol (and) gasoline".
As can be learned via a perusal of:
Siemens Global Website; and: Siemens - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia;
Siemens is, indeed, committed to the full employment of environmental, renewable energy, and have developed an extraordinary array of industrial technology and equipment to make such full use of it. As can also be learned, however, we are compelled to note, and as seen for one example in our report of:
Siemens Gasifies All Ranks of Coal | Research & Development | News; concerning: "United States Patent 8,025,705 - Gasification of Coals of Widely Differing Degrees of Coalification; September, 2011; Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Munich; The invention relates to a method for simultaneous gasification of coals of widely differing degrees of coalification, such as brown coals and stone coals, in accordance with the method of entrained flow gasification. The invention allows coals pulverized into pulverized fuel to be converted into synthesis gases in a gasification plant with oxygen or with a gasification means mixture containing free oxygen in the entrained flow";
Siemens is also dedicated to the full employment of our essential Coal energy resources, both for the generation of truly abundant and truly affordable electric power and for the generation of hydrocarbon "synthesis gases", both for power generation and for the follow-on production of gaseous and liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
As we've noted previously in the long course of our reportage, new technologies are often published as international, or "World", patent applications some time before they are disclosed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. And, herein, we learn that Siemens AG has further advanced their science and technology for employing environmental energy of one sort or another to power both the collection of byproduct Carbon Dioxide and the further conversion of that Carbon Dioxide into "valuable chemical products", including fuel materials.
Comment follows, and is inserted within, excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"Environmentally-Friendly Integrated Installation for Producing Chemical and Petrochemical Products
International (Patent) Application No: PCT/EP 2013/067613; Publication: WO/2014/040844
Publication Date: March 20, 2014; Application Date: August 26, 2013
Applicant: Siemens AG, Munich
Inventors: Conrad Busskamp, et. al., Germany
Abstract: The invention relates to an environmentally-friendly integrated installation which comprises a combined air separation and carbon dioxide capture installation, and an electrolysis unit. In certain embodiments, the integrated installation additionally comprises a unit for producing renewable energy. Moreover, the invention also relates to a control unit and a computer program product for said integrated installation, a method for producing chemical products in the integrated installation, and the use of the integrated installation to produce chemical products and as a chemical store for fluctuating renewable energies.
(Note that we have previously reported, and many times in our research seen, the conversion of Carbon Dioxide into fuel materials, in chemical processes powered by one sort of environmentally-derived energy or another, referred to as, and as indicated above, a means of storing "fluctuating renewable energies".)
(Note, although the various links bear identical titles, if they function properly, maybe a big "if", they should take you to different segments of this World Intellectual Property Organization publication, which itself is a reproduction of the European economic union, whatever they're calling it nowadays, publication.)
Description: Green composite plant for the production of chemical and petro-chemical products. The present invention relates to the technical possibilities of a "green" composite plant for the production of chemical and petrochemical products that are not based on fossil fuels.
For more efficient and environmentally friendly use of energy from fossil fuels, various techniques are available nowadays, such as the oxyfuel process or incineration at an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant.
For example, an IGCC system not only allows to increase the efficiency during the combustion and use of low-grade energy source, by which fossil fuel is converted by sub-stoichiometric combustion with oxygen, and then introduced into a water gas shift reactor by means of water vapor in hydrogen, then can be used for power generation, but also a method for the generation of simple chemical products from the reactants used oxygen, water, carbon and nitrogen in a composite system.
(Siemens is promoting IGCC Coal-fired power plants, since they make Coal gasifiers and other apparatus associated with them, and, since, as we've noted once or twice previously, IGCC systems lend themselves to more efficient CO2 capture and extraction from the exhaust gases. Even further, IGCC systems initially produce synthesis gas from Coal, which is then either combusted for power generation or, as is the case with Siemens Coal gasifiers currently being used in South Africa, catalytically, chemically condensed into a full range of hydrocarbon products.)
In this case, a conventional IGCC plant is generally at least one air separation plant for providing oxygen and nitrogen, a carburetor to the combustion of fossil fuels, a water gas shift reactor with a system for removing acid gases such as hydrogen sulphide (acid gas removal unit) to produce hydrogen, and a gas and steam plant for generating electrical energy from the process heat of the combustion and the products, in particular hydrogen.
Furthermore, such an IGCC plant and a unit for capture and storage of carbon dioxide (Carbon Capture and Storage, CCS) may include, where carbon dioxide, CO2 ... is from the process removed and stored.
Moreover, it is also possible to make chemical products for consumption or for the production of other, possibly more complex chemical products from the water-gas shift reactor WSR (water gas shift reactor WGS) produced synthesis gas SG, for example, ...methanol, ... synthetic natural gas (SNG), ammonia NH3 or the synthesis gas (SG) itself to use as the product for further processing.
(The "water gas shift" is a reaction we've explained previously, wherein excess Carbon Monoxide produced during the Coal gasification can be reacted with steam, H2O, to produce both more Hydrogen, to improve the Hydrogen-Carbon Monoxide ratio of the synthesis gas, and a relatively pure and more easily recovered stream of Carbon Dioxide.)
A disadvantage of the method in the IGCC plant and other plants that rely on fossil fuels, however, is that carbon dioxide is produced as a raw material in the composite system by the combustion of fossil fuels and only in connection with capture and storage of carbon dioxide as a raw material available is what a more complex systems with a plurality of different apparatuses, for example for the production and separation of carbon dioxide, as well as to increased environmental impact of fossil fuels leads to. In addition, fossil fuels are burned, is so consumed energy stored in chemical substances, chemically before value-added products can be produced.
(As in the above, the translation into English, from the original German, requires a little patience to read and understand. The United States Patent Application for this CO2 utilization process, when it appears, should be more understandable.)
There is thus a need for equipment, not necessary to generate based on fossil fuels, the intermediates for a composite system such as carbon dioxide. Next, there is a demand for composite systems based on environmentally friendly raw materials.
This object is achieved by the composite system according to claim 1: A composite system of the invention comprises a combined air separation plant and carbon dioxide capture plant, and an electrolysis unit. In certain embodiments, (there) is (a unit) to generate renewable energy that, at least in part, provides energy for the operation of the combined air separation plant and carbon dioxide capture plant and/or the electrolysis unit.
A composite plant of the invention ... allows full use of all products produced in the combined air separation plant and carbon dioxide capture plant
In addition, through the combined plant according to the invention, in certain embodiments chemical and petrochemical (CO2-neutral) products (are produced).
These products can be generated as "green" products, i.e., as products that do not rely on fossil fuels (such as) green (CO2-neutral) methanol.
In addition, can also make products from the air separation plant as such, such as oxygen O2 ... .
In addition, ... the invention can be used as storage for fluctuating renewable energy ... in products, such as synthesis gas (SG), ... synthetic natural gas, synthetic methane, various hydrocarbons, such as alkanes according to the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis or alkenes or alkynes, in particular methane, ethane, propane, butane, aldehydes, such as the oxo process, ketones, carboxylic acids such as formic acid and acetic acid, ammonia, amine compounds, nitric acid, T fuel, alcohols such as methanol, MeOH, ethanol, etc. transferred.
In certain embodiments ... for renewable energy generation ... the composite system of the invention acts as a buffer for these fluctuating energy.
(Claims) Composite plant for the production of chemical products, comprising: a combined air separation plant and carbon dioxide capture plant for the production of at least carbon dioxide and nitrogen, and an electrolysis unit for the extraction of hydrogen; wherein at least the in the combined air separation and carbon capture plant ... recovered carbon dioxide is used to produce chemical products.
Composite system ... (with an) additional unit for generating renewable energy which (provides), at least partially, power for the operation of the combined air separation plant and carbon dioxide capture plant and or the ... electrolysis unit for the extraction of hydrogen.
A method for producing chemical products ... wherein carbon dioxide and nitrogen ... and hydrogen ... can be converted to chemical products."
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We know the European format, and the translation, make this somewhat, maybe very, difficult to understand.
In essence, they are describing how renewable energy, from wind or solar, for instance, can power the extraction of Carbon Dioxide from power plant exhaust gas, the extraction of Hydrogen from water, and, the combination of the two in a sequence of reactions that can lead to, as desired, "methane, ethane, propane, butane" and/or "alcohols such as methanol, ... ethanol, etc.".
Liquid hydrocarbon fuels, too, can be manufactured via "the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis".
For several reasons, as we noted, Siemens specifies this application for use in an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, IGCC, Coal-fired power plant, but we don't see why it's principles couldn't be applied to other, more conventional Coal-fired power plants, as well. And, we remind that, as seen in our report of:
US Gov Confirms Coal Can Be A CO2-Neutral Source Of Power | Research & Development | News; concerning: "United States Patent 8,461,215 - Rendering Coal As An Environmentally Carbon Dioxide Neutral Fuel And A Regenerative Carbon Source; June 11, 2013; Inventors: George Olah and G.K. Surya Prakash, CA; Assignee: The University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Abstract: The invention provides a method for rendering coal as an environmentally essentially carbon dioxide-neutral fuel. Carbon dioxide produced from coal combustion is captured, purified, combined with ... hydrogen, and reacted under reaction conditions sufficient to form methanol and/or dimethyl ether, which can be used as fuel or feedstock for derived synthetic hydrocarbons and products";
as confirmed by technical experts in the employ of our US Government and a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, such "Composite system"s, to use Siemens' terminology, can indeed enable the production of both electricity and fuel alcohol "methanol", and/or "synthetic hydrocarbons", in one industrial complex that relies on, as it's key raw material, our by far most abundant fossil fuel resource, Coal.
And, since such a facility, as Siemens specifies, would use supplemental Hydrogen supplied by an "electrolysis unit" powered by environmental energy, such as wind-generated electricity; and, since enough supplemental Hydrogen could in theory be supplied to, through the various reactions specified, consume all the co-product Carbon Dioxide in the synthesis of, for example, "methane, ethane, propane, butane" and/or "alcohols such as methanol, ... ethanol, etc."; the overall process of generating electricity from Coal could, as pointed out by Nobel Laureate Olah, be made "Carbon Dioxide Neutral".
Almost without doubt a United States Patent Application for the process disclosed by our subject, "International (Patent) Application No: PCT/EP 2013/067613": "Environmentally-Friendly Integrated Installation for Producing Chemical and Petrochemical Products", has been submitted, and, it's phrasing and format might be more understandable to us, here, in the United States, than that in what is, actually, a "machine", or computer, translation of the original German or French in which "International (Patent) Application No: PCT/EP 2013/067613" was written and published.
We'll bring that US Patent Application to you when it becomes available. But, for now, as confirmed again herein by the European multi-national industrial giant, Siemens AG, we can make our essential use of our abundant Coal in the generation of truly reliable and truly affordable electric power, as stated by "United States Patent 8,461,215", a "Carbon Dioxide Neutral" and, according to "International (Patent) Application No: PCT/EP 2013/067613" an "Environmentally-Friendly", process. One which, in addition to electricity, can also supply, as again specified herein by Siemens AG, such seemingly needful things as substitute natural gas "methane", as well as fuel alcohols "methanol (and) ethanol", and, via "the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis", a likely full range of liquid hydrocarbon fuels.