WV Coal Member Meeting 2024 1240x200 1 1

Green Energy to Recycle CO2

 

We have as yet been unable to ascertain the credentials or affiliations of the inventors named in this United States Patent Application, wherein it is proposed that environmental energy be used to recycle power plant Carbon Dioxide, via the synthesis of hydrocarbon fuels.
 
However, the technology they describe is consistent with others, similar, we have cited from impeccable sources, such as the USDOE's Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories; especially as regards their "Green Freedom" concept, about which we have earlier reported.
 
And, the applicant inventors are careful to cite authoritative sources of their own in the course of their Disclosure. One, of special interest, which we, due to our technical limitations, have as yet been unable to access, is identified, as excerpted from the Application, in:

Pittsburgh DOE Improves Coal Liquefaction

 
We present herein only the briefest of excerpts from the enclosed link and attached file.
 
The technicalities of it all are gibberish to us, as we presume they would be to all but the most highly initiated cognoscenti.

Penn State Coal Plant Exhaust to Liquid Fuel

 
We have previously reported on "tri-reforming" technologies, wherein Carbon Dioxide can be reacted with both Steam and Methane, and made thereby to generate a synthesis gas suitable for catalytic condensation into liquid hydrocarbons.
 
A number of US Patents, some dating back half a century, as we have documented for the West Virginia Coal Association, have been issued to major petroleum companies for such, and similar, technology.
 
As we have also reported, Penn State University has been at work in recent years to further develop those sorts of Carbon Dioxide recycling processes, and we herein present further documentation of their achievements.
 
What is most notable in this submission is, that, in confirmation of earlier reports, raw flue gas can be utilized in the reforming/recycling reactions.

1954 Low Grade Coal to Motor Fuel

 
The half-century-old Standard Oil technology disclosed herein is directed toward the complete conversion of the Carbon contained in low grade Coal into both liquid "motor fuels", and, either by-product substitute natural gas, "fuel gas", or, additional liquid hydrocarbon synthesis gas.
 
In it's Disclosure, this official United States Government publication confirms, and further validates, at least two technical concepts we have lately, from other sources, been documenting:
 
Coal, perhaps especially low grade Coal, can be made to emit volatile gasses, as are suitable for catalytic condensation into liquid hydrocarbons, via long-known "coking" processes, herein, and as elsewhere, referred to as "carbonization" and/or "distillation".

More CO2 to Methanol Photosynthesis

 
The inventor named in this United States Patent, which documents a way in which environmental energy can be harnessed to convert Carbon Dioxide, from any source, into the liquid fuel, Methanol, is a scientist we have cited previously, as documented in the West Virginia Coal Association R&D Blog, with respect to his work with colleagues in Switzerland and Israel, wherein processes were refined, similar to the one disclosed herein, that enable the conversion of Carbon Dioxide, in various "bi-reforming" or "tri-reforming" reactions with Water and/or Methane, into valuable higher hydrocarbons.
 
The invention he discloses herein is very similar to other technologies we have recorded as being under development by scientists, such as Rich Diver, at the USDOE's Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, one actually named "Green Freedom", wherein sunlight, specifically, is used to power what might be described as an "artificial photosynthesis" process, a reaction sequence driven by light energy that consumes Carbon Dioxide in the production of various hydrocarbons.