ABB Corporate Research Ltd, 5405 Baden, Switzerland
(ABB is a global leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact.)
We have documented a number of conversion processes for you involving the transmutation of greenhouse gasses, primarily Carbon Dioxide, arising from a number of natural processes, such as vulcanism, which is, perhaps, the major contributor of atmospheric CO2, and human activities, such as the combustion, or conversion-to-liquid, of coal.
Another suspected culprit in climate change is Methane, which arises itself from a number of sources, including decaying swampland vegetation, and is a relatively simple organic compound.
Without recapping past reports at too much length, we have detailed, and will in future dispatches further detail, how CO2 can be efficiently captured, even from the atmosphere itself, and then converted, when combined with a Hydrogen source, into more liquid fuel.
One Hydrogen source that has been documented is water, when processed via electrolysis. In the subsequent reactions, methane is a transitional product which further reacts with more CO2, via catalysis, to methanol - which can be used as a serviceable liquid fuel itself, or further converted into gasoline.
But, Methane can act as the original hydrogen donor for CO2-to-Hydrocarbon synthesis.
In the enclosed dissertation from Switzerland's ABB, we have a further explanation of the synthesis of hydrocarbons - including a "syngas" which, as you should by now know, can be derived from coal, and is a direct precursor to liquid fuels such as methanol, diesel and gasoline - through the reaction of CO2 with methane through the mediation of a zeolite catalyst.
The Abstract:
"Direct higher hydrocarbon formation from the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide using a dielectric-barrier discharge (DBD) with zeolite catalysts is presented. This catalytic DBD can be operated at ambient conditions and leads to direct hydrocarbon formation. The products include alkanes, alkenes, oxygenates, and syngas (CO + H2). The product distribution depends on the pressure, the input power, the flow rate, the CH4/CO2 feed ratio, and the catalyst used. It is not sensitive to gas temperature in the range from room temperature to 150 °C. From the experiments it can be concluded that a cogeneration of syngas and higher hydrocarbons can be achieved using the catalytic DBD. The optimum CH4/CO2 ratio in the feed for such cogeneration is in the range 2/1 to 3/1. The energy efficiency of CO2 and CH4 conversion increases substantially at higher discharge powers."
Unfortunately, the reaction does require more Methane than CO2, and CO2 is by far the predominant greenhouse gas. But, remember that Methane can itself be synthesized from Carbon Dioxide and water, if sufficient quantities could not be extracted from the atmosphere, or collected at sites where it's generated, such as sewage treatment plants, landfills and agricultural waste accumulations.
We again assert that our use of coal generates valuable by-products, such as Carbon Dioxide, which can be used, as in this example, even when combined with another greenhouse gas, to synthesize liquid fuel.