"UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced that it will partner with the USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute to develop and commercialize new technology to transform carbon dioxide into clean-burning alternative fuels.
USC developed fundamental chemistry to transform carbon dioxide to methanol or dimethyl ether, two potentially cleaner-burning alternatives to traditional transportation fuels, thereby reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas known to contribute to global warming.
Nobel Laureate and USC College Distinguished Professor George Olah, director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, his colleague G.K. Surya Prakesh and their team of researchers have developed fundamental chemistry that could aid in the improved production of methanol and/or dimethyl ether from a variety of sources such as natural gas, coal and carbon dioxide."
To repeat: California researchers developed technology to improve the "production of methanol and ... dimethyl ether from ... coal and carbon dioxide".
Not that we couldn't do that previously, mind you, but, the technology to convert Coal and Carbon Dioxide into liquid fuels is being improved - in California!
Abstract
Fischer−Tropsch (FT) synthesis is a technology to produce liquid fuels from coal, natural gas, and biomass as an alternate to crude oil. However, the quantity of emitted CO2 from the FT process consisting of syngas preparation, FT synthesis, and product workup is one of the serious disadvantages of FT process. The conversion of CO2 into hydrocarbons is one of the promising methods to decrease CO2 emissions. Effects of promoter addition on the activity of precipitated Fe catalysts for the conversion of CO22 and CO2-containing syngas feeds. The results suggested that CO2 can be activated by suitable promoter(s) for hydrocarbon synthesis at low temperature. Low K content is suitable for increasing hydrocarbon yield. The Fe catalysts promoted by equal Zn and Cu have higher CO and CO2 conversion and decreased CH4 selectivity." were studied using pure CO
So, even though CO2 is generated both by coal combustion for power generation and by some indirect processes of coal liquefaction, "CO2 can be activated by suitable promoter(s) for hydrocarbon synthesis at low temperature".
In other words, Carbon Dioxide, wherever we get it, can be converted into hydrocarbons, such as liquid fuels, in a low energy, "low temperature", process.
And, note: Even though the work was performed in China and Japan, it was reported by the American Chemical Society.
This process of coal conversion and CO2 recycling might be "low temperature", but it's way past time for our Coal Country journalists to start turning up the heat on the topic of coal conversion and CO2 recycling, isn't it?
Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University Sendai 980-8577 Japan
Engineering Department, Ishii Iron Works Co. Ltd., 6-5-1 Higashi-kojiya, Ohta-ku Tokyo Japan
Production Engineering Laboratory, Technology Research Center, Japan National Oil Corporation, 1-2-2 Hamada, Mihama-ku Chiba, 261-0025 Japan;
Abstract
The activity and durability of the catalysts prepared by the oxidation–reduction treatment of (various percentage blends of Cobalt, Zirconium, and Nickel - JtM) alloys have been investigated for simultaneous methanation of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. It has been found that the (Nickel–Zirconium) catalyst shows the highest activity among the catalysts examined, and the activity of the Cobalt–Zirconium catalyst is lower than those of the nickel-based catalysts, in agreement with the activity for the solo methanation of carbon dioxide. On all the catalysts, carbon monoxide reacts preferentially with hydrogen, and is completely converted into methane at and above 523 K. The remaining hydrogen further reacts with carbon dioxide to form methane. The methanation rate in the H2–CO–CO2 mixed gas is higher than that in H2–CO mixed gas without CO2."
There is more technical rhetoric in the unedited Abstract, but the gist of it is: These Japanese researchers discovered that blending Carbon Monoxide, an essential component of coal-derived syngas directed to liquid fuel synthesis, with Carbon Dioxide, in the presence of Hydrogen and certain non-exotic metal catalysts, actually enhanced and increased the conversion of Carbon species into the Hydrocarbon gas, Methane, which, we have documented earlier, from other sources, can be further, and efficiently, synthesized into the liquid fuel and, as it serves in Exxon-Mobil's MTG(r) Process, gasoline precursor, Methanol.
The conclusion, again, is: "The methanation rate in the H2–CO–CO2 mixed gas is higher than that in H2–CO mixed gas without CO2."
Carbon Dioxide improves the conversion process, and it increases the production of fuel from a mixture of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, which is, essentially, "syngas", as can be made, as we have thoroughly documented, from coal.
So, synthesis gas derived from coal can be combined with Carbon Dioxide derived from the combustion of coal to enhance the production of a fuel gas that can, itself, again as we have elsewhere thoroughly documented, be converted into a liquid fuel, gasoline precursor and plastics manufacturing raw material.
We really don't want to be stuffing all of our CO2 down geologic storage rat holes to help Big Oil scrape out a few more drops of petrol to extort us with, or to tax our coal-use industries out of existence through Cap and Trade legislation because of it, do we?
Not when we can recycle CO2 that arises from our coal use, ultimately, into gasoline.
The CAMERE process (carbon dioxide hydrogenation to form methanol via a reverse-water-gas-shift reaction) was developed and evaluated. The reverse-water-gas-shift reactor and the methanol synthesis reactor were serially aligned to form methanol from CO2 hydrogenation. Carbon dioxide was converted to CO and water by the reverse-water-gas-shift reaction (RWReaction) to remove water before methanol was synthesized. With the elimination of water by RWReaction, the purge gas volume was minimized as the recycle gas volume decreased. Because of the minimum purge gas loss by the pretreatment of RWReactor, the overall methanol yield increased up to 89% from 69%. An active and stable catalyst ... was developed. The system was optimized and compared with the commercial methanol synthesis processes from natural gas and coal."
Aside from the fact that a CO2 recycling system, which could provide us with fuels and a raw material for plastics manufacturing has been developed, and could thus put a stop to the economic threats to our coal industries, and put an end to our OPEC bondage, has been developed, is the sad truth that news of the development was published in the United States, as in "Copyright © 1999 American Chemical Society", but we are all still arguing about coal-crippling issues like Cap&Trade and Sequestration.
Don't our Press and our political office holders owe all of us in Coal Country, all of us in the US, an explanation as to why we have been left to worry about our security and livelihoods, while they waste ink and time on what should be irrelevancies like oil shortages, OPEC hostilities and green house gas emissions?
The very real technologies that exist to, cleanly and profitably, convert our abundant coal into liquid fuels, and to recycle the Carbon Dioxide by-product of coal use into even more liquid fuels and manufacturing raw materials, are established, and, in certain circles, well-known. It is far, far past time they became well-known in some broader circles.