DSpace at IIT Bombay: Fischer-Tropsch synthesis using bio-syngas and CO2
This article comes from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
We submit it in support of our thesis that CO2, arising from what should be our many, varied uses of coal, can be captured and recycled into additional liquid fuels and commercially useful organic chemicals. Carbon Dioxide is not so much a harmful pollutant arising from our use of coal as it is a by-product of high, but as yet unrealized, value.
The excerpt:
"While Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) using coal and natural gas in conventional reactors is an almost well-established technology, (not in WV or the US, apparently - JtM) the production of liquid hydrocarbons from syngas obtained from biomass is in its preliminary stages of commercialization in countries like Germany. With concerns about global warming and ways of disposing of CO2 being searched for, CO2 hydrogenation using FTS to liquid hydrocarbons can act as a CO2 sink. A brief review of FTS using CO2-rich syngas is given in this paper, looking at FTS as a technology that can help reduce global warming (as we have been saying - JtM) and as a process integration alternative. The reverse water gas shift (r-WGS) reaction is vital for CO2 hydrogenation. We have studied the effect of this using an FT kinetic model and have proposed a new flow sheet alternative for FTS using CO2-rich syngas. Simulations suggested that this new process gives better conversion of CO2. The product selectivity and yields from an FT plant are vital to make the process viable economically."
In other words, Mike, full implementation of coal-to-liquid technology, which would recycle, as is demonstrated to be feasible and practical, the emissions from coal conversion, including and especially Carbon Dioxide, could "help reduce global warming".