Synthetic Jet Fuel

 
 
An extended excerpt, with comment following:
 
"NORFOLK, VA: A new fuel specification that will enable use of synthetic fuels in commercial aviation was formally voted upon and passed June 24 (2009 - JtM) by the ASTM International Aviation Fuels Subcommittee. The action took place during a meeting of the subcommittee in Norfolk, Va."
 
"At its meeting, the ASTM International Aviation Fuels Subcommittee reviewed and discussed return ballots and comments submitted in regard to a new specification for alternative aviation fuels containing synthesized hydrocarbons. The proposed specification describes the fuel properties and criteria necessary to control the manufacture and quality of these fuels for aviation use."
 
(Aviation fuel can be made from) "a variety of feedstocks, including biomass (biomass to liquid) and natural gas to liquid, in addition to coal to liquid and combinations thereof."
 
"Summing up the sentiments of candidate buyers for aviation alternative fuels, Nancy Young, Vice President of Environmental Affairs for the Air Transport Association of America, which represents U.S. passenger and cargo airlines, characterized the outcome as "extremely positive," noting that "this is a giant step toward adoption of the first of what promises to be several generic alternative jet fuel blends that will offer commercial aviation a sustainable new fuel dynamic. The airline industry is prepared to be an enthusiastic buyer..."."
 
"Los Angeles-based Rentech, Inc. welcomed the announcement. The new jet fuel specification, once issued, will permit Rentech to market its FT process fuel to the aviation market. Rentech produces synthetic jet fuel under the trademark "RenJet.""
 
We have noted Rentech's participation in the Coal conversion industry previously. Following is a brief public release about them and their operations:
 
"Rentech, a Colorado company that is developing gas-to-liquids (GTL)/coal-to-liquids (CTL) processes to convert synthesis gas made from natural gas, coal and other carbon-bearing materials into ultra-low sulfur and ultra-low aromatic fuels."
 
In other words, although ultra-low-sulfur liquid fuels made from coal have been delivered to airliners from around the world for some years, at Johannesburg, South Africa, by Sasol, they are now officially recognized and approved world-wide.

Sulfur Recovery from Flue Gas

 
J. Licki(a), A. G. Chmielewski(b), Z. Zimek(b), B. Tymiñski(b) and S. Buka (b)

a Department of Risk Assessment and Environment Protection, Institute of Atomic Energy, 05-400 Otwock-Image wierk. Poland

b Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Dorodna 16, 03-195 Warsaw, Poland

In this research from Poland is revealed another, potentially efficient, technique for capturing Sulfur compounds in the flue gas of coal utilization facilities.

An excerpt:

"Abstract

Flue gases with high SO2 concentration are emitted from different industrial processes, e.g. combustion of coal with high sulfur content, copper smelting and sintering plant. The application of the electron beam process for SO22 removal efficiency was obtained when the temperature and humidity of irradiated flue gases and ammonia stoichiometry were properly adjusted. The synergistic effect of high SO2x removal was observed. The collected by-product was the mixture of (NH4)2 SO4 and NH4NO3. The content of heavy metals in the by-product was many times lower than the values acceptable for commercial fertilizer." removal from such flue gases was investigated. A parametric study was carried out to determine the removal efficiency as a function of temperature and humidity of irradiated gases, dose and ammonia stoichiometry. At the dose 11.5 kGy 95% SO concentration on NO

Note that this process generates a commercial product - fertilizer - that is of higher quality, in terms of heavy metal content, than the current product standards.

Flue Gas to Fertilizer

 
Andrzej G. Chmielewski;
Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Warsaw, Poland; Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

We submit this article on the "radar range" removal of Sulfur and Nitrogen from coal plant flue gas because it both illustrates how long the technology has been under development, and quantifies how efficient it has become.
 
The excerpt:

"Abstract

The electron beam technology for flue gas treatment (EBFGT) has been developed in Japan in the early 1980s. Later on, this process was investigated in pilot scale in the USA, Germany, Japan, Poland, Bulgaria and China. The new engineering and process solutions have been developed during the past two decades. Finally industrial plants have been constructed in Poland and China. The high efficiency of SOx and NOx removal was achieved (up to 95% for SOx and up to 70% for NOx) and by-product is a high quality fertilizer. Since the power of accelerators applied in industrial installation is over 1 MW and requested operational availability of the plant is equal to 8500 h in year, it is a new challenge for radiation processing applications."

Note, Mike, that industrial plants utilizing this high-efficiency technology, which produces high-quality fertilizer from the waste flue gasses of coal-use facilities, have been constructed in China. Just in time for their Coal-To-Liquid Fuel Revolution?

The use of coal doesn't create pollutants - just valuable raw materials for other commercial processes.

Coal as an Alternative Energy


Investors are most interested in identifying future trends and jumping in early. This submission is from the Motley Fool stock advisory service, a group of financial and business analysts dedicated to advising the public about business trends and investment opportunities.
 
They see a big opportunity for investing now in coal-to-oil conversion technology.
 
Some excerpts: 

"Alternative to oil
The technology to convert coal into a liquid fuel has been used for decades. South African oil company Sasol (NYSE: SSL) is a world leader in the field, as it makes gasoline and diesel fuel from both natural gas and coal. The company is currently working on ventures in Qatar, Nigeria, and China for coal-to-liquids plants."

(All as we have earlier documented for you. - JtM)

"If the necessary political will is present in the U.S., the technology should ultimately become popular here as well, given our huge coal reserves. It will be a great competitive move if Sasol can partner with a large refiner like Valero (NYSE: VLO) -- which has experience on the oil front with difficult feedstock like heavy sour crude -- or even ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), which has a huge cash pile for potential investment."

(We'll note both ExxonMobil's own Methanol-to-Gasoline - MTG(r) - process, where the methanol can be derived from coal, and the need for "political will". - JtM)

"Talk of wind and solar energy is fine, but the way I see it, coal will continue as an important power source for a long while. And if new initiatives bear fruit, then coal could easily become an important source of alternative energy itself."

Though it might be hard to think of coal as an alternate energy source, the coal-to-liquid and the CO2-to-fuel-and-plastics recycling technologies we've documented, make it just that. Coal could well become the King of several energy realms.

And, we present this entry because it's not from a scientific journal, company news release, or government agency. It's from a popular stock-picking advisory, and other investment advisors will likely follow suit. If so, then concerns that have been expressed about where the money needed to build coal conversion facilities will come from will be answered. Perhaps Sasol, in terms of financial investment in new and revolutionary technology, could become the new Microsoft.

CO2 to Plastics


This will be one of two or three dispatches concerning the work of Geoffrey Coates and his group at Cornell University centered on the utilization of the Carbon Dioxide by-product of our coal-use industries.
 
It reinforces information we sent you earlier detailing similar work by private corporations - such as Novomer and Mantra - and academic institutions - such as the University of British Columbia.
 
We can, as we've documented, recycle CO2 into useful plastics, as detailed herein, and even more liquid fuel, as we've earlier detailed.
 
The excerpt:
 
"ITHACA, N.Y. -- A Cornell University research group has made a sweet and environmentally beneficial discovery -- how to make plastics from citrus fruits, such as oranges, and carbon dioxide.

In a paper published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (Sept. 2004), Geoffrey Coates, a Cornell professor of chemistry and chemical biology, and his graduate students Chris Byrne and Scott Allen describe a way to make polymers using limonene oxide and carbon dioxide, with the help of a novel "helper molecule" -- a catalyst developed in the researchers' laboratory.

Limonene is a carbon-based compound produced in more than 300 plant species. In oranges it makes up about 95 percent of the oil in the peel.

In industry, Coates explains, the orange peel oil is extracted for various uses, such as giving household cleaners their citrus scent. The oil can be oxidized to create limonene oxide. This is the reactive compound that Coates and his collaborators used as a building block.

The other building block they used was carbon dioxide (CO2), an atmospheric gas that has been rising steadily over the past century and a half -- due largely to the combustion of fossil fuels -- becoming an environmentally harmful greenhouse gas.

By using their catalyst to combine the limonene oxide and CO2, the Coates group produced a novel polymer -- called polylimonene carbonate -- that has many of the characteristics of polystyrene, a petroleum-based plastic currently used to make many disposable plastic products."

Another thing is: If we plant a lot of orange trees to supply the limonene, they'll be inhaling and recycling a fair share of CO2 as well, in addition to what's commercially extracted directly from flue gasses and the atmosphere. Carbon Dioxide is a valuable co-product of coal power generation and coal-to-liquid conversion. We shouldn't be wasting it, and money, by pumping it all down geologic storage rat holes, we should profitably use it.