Carbon Sciences Innovations in Recycling CO2 Into Fuel Acknowledged During Congressional Hearing on Capitol Hill - FOXBusines. 

 
We have been urging that we, the people of the United States, stop wasting time and effort in an endless, unproductive wrangle about how to best throw away a potentially-valuable resource: the Carbon Dioxide generated as a by-product of our coal use; and, instead, focus our efforts on finding ways to  efficiently collect and profitably use it.
 
In support of our argument, we submit the enclosed expert testimony to our US Congress.
 
Some excerpts from the link:
"SANTA BARBARA, CA, May 11, 2009 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) ----Carbon Sciences Inc., the developer of a breakthrough technology to recycle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into gasoline and other fuels, announced that its innovative approach to carbon recycling was recognized in a testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development Hearing on "Beneficial Reuse of Carbon Dioxide from Coal and Other Fossil Fuel Facilities" held on May 6."
(First, why wasn't this hearing publicized? Sounds to us like it should have been headline news in Appalachia, or anywhere else coal is mined to put bread on the table. - JtM)
"Margie Tatro, Director of Fuel and Water Systems at Sandia National Laboratories, the multi-program national security laboratory owned by the U.S. Department of Energy and Sandia Corporation, testified on the environmental and economic benefits that would be achieved with significant investments in the carbon recycling sector. The principle focus of Tatro's congressional testimony was on carbon recycling technologies, which she believes hold the most promise in carbon management over other approaches such as reducing, reusing or burying CO2."
"Tatro explained, "The U.S. economy and environment would benefit from investments in scalable technologies and processes for recycling of carbon dioxide (CO2) as one option for addressing two critical, yet interrelated, challenges facing our nation and the world -- stabilizing the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere and producing new supplies of liquid hydrocarbon fuels that help reduce our dependence on petroleum."
"Her testimony continued outlining specific carbon management options. Recognizing other progressive work in carbon recycling, Tatro said, "Hybrid biological and electrical approaches are showing progress. Examples include work at Princeton and announcements from the private sector, such as Carbon Sciences.""
We have previously documented for you some of the work at Princeton, and we will provide some documentation concerning Carbon Sciences, who are commercializing a technology purchased from, or assigned by, Canada's University of British Columbia, in Vancouver.
Point is, again: Carbon Dioxide arising from full implementation of our vast coal resources, whether we are using that coal to generate power or to synthesize much-needed liquid fuel and chemical manufacturing raw materials, is itself a valuable raw material resource, and we shouldn't allow ourselves to be either panicked by idealistic, but misinformed, utopians into pumping it all down geologic storage rat holes, or otherwise swindled by special commercial interests into strangling our coal-based industries.

Method for removing water contained in solid using liquid material - Patent # 7537700 - PatentGenius
 
Mike,
 
The excerpt, with comment following:
 
"Title:
Method for removing water contained in solid using liquid material
Document Type and Number:
United States Patent 7537700

Abstract:
A method and a system for removing water from high water content solid such as high water content coal, which enables dewatering with small energy consumption. A liquefied material which is a gas at 25° C. under 1 atm. (hereinafter referred to as material D) is contacted with a solid containing water to allow the liquefied material D to dissolve the water contained in the solid, and to produce a liquefied material D having a high water content and simultaneously remove the water from the solid, and by vaporizing the material D in the liquefied material having a high water content, to thereby separate the water from the resulting gaseous material D, recovering the separated gaseous material D, and liquefying the recovered gaseous material by pressurizing, cooling or a combination thereof, to reuse the resulting liquefied material for removing water from a solid containing water.

Inventors:
Kanda, Hideki (Kanagawa, JP)
Shirai, Hiromi (Kanagawa, JP)" 
 
Mike, further research reveals that the "Solid" which contains the water is, in fact, coal, and nothing else. And, the mysterious "material D" noted in the Abstract, by these Japanese inventors, is, in fact, dimethyl ether (DME). Both facts can be documented through other sources detailing Patent 7537700.
 
One point of this is: DME is a very versatile liquid fuel, aside from being - in this US patent awarded to Japanese researchers - a water solvent. It can be substituted directly for automotive diesel, and it can, with relatively simple processing, be converted into methanol, or, perhaps more significantly, gasoline.
 
And, you can extract, or synthesize, DME with commercial alacrity from coal. In fact, much of the production from China's ambitious coal-to-liquid industrial plans is slated to be in the form of DME.
 
Further, Malaysia is developing, as we've documented, with Japanese assistance, a coal-to-liquid conversion industry which will convert high-ash and high-moisture lignite coal into liquid fuels - likely DME.
 
The main point is this: The technology for converting coal, even low-grade, high-moisture lignite, and perhaps some coal mine wastes, into liquid fuel is becoming more refined, sophisticated and economical. In this patent is described technology wherein the potential product of coal-to-liquid fuel conversion is itself efficiently used, while on it's way to final processing steps, to clean and prepare new, incoming raw material for the initial conversion process, to make it more efficient to effect the actual conversion. Other, more detailed, descriptions of this patent from other sources describe how both the extraction of water from brown coal with DME, and then the dehydration of the DME, are efficient, low-energy input processes.
 
The technology for converting coal into liquid fuels (CTL) is, through developments like this, becoming quite sophisticated, and much more economical. It is, Mike, almost in secret being reduced to commercial practice - efficient and quite sophisticated commercial practice that could well make CTL more than competitive with petroleum.

West Virginia Headline News and Talk Radio


 
We had earlier written you of the planned Mingo County, WV, coal-to-liquid conversion facility. This story presents an update of the project.
 
Some excerpts, with highlights and parenthetical comments:
 
"A proposed $3 billion Mingo County coal-to-liquid fuel plant is now in the air quality part of the permitting process."
 
"The goal is to put the plant, which could eventually use up to three million tons of locally mined coal to make more than 6.5 million barrels of gasoline every year, into operation by 2013."
 
(Note that this estimate of yield indicates technology improvements have been made on coal conversion technologies about which we've earlier reported - suggesting in those reports that yields would likely improve as the CTL technology developed and advanced. - JtM)
 
"As for the carbon that's produced in the process, company officials say they're willing to look at carbon sequestration but they would rather Congress open up pipelines to allow the carbon to be moved from West Virginia to the Gulf Coast where it could be injected into existing oil fields to help with oil production."
 
(We would rather see some more "advanced" thinking applied to CO2 - it could be converted into more liquid fuel, as we've documented. But, if they do plan to just pump it underground, they are at least trying to accomplish something constructive - enhanced oil recovery - by doing so. - JtM)
"Herholdt (State Division of Energy Director Jeff Herholdt) says the Mingo County project would be leading the way in coal-to-liquids.  But, he says, others need to follow suit."
""We are challenged to meet the liquid fuel needs of the future and coal-to-liquids plants certainly will represent one of our best opportunities to continue our dependence on liquid fuels," Herholdt tells MetroNews."

Greening Ningxia -- Beijing Review
 
Mike,
 
In China, where they're busily at work building a series of coal-to-liquid plants that will ensure their domestic energy self-sufficiency, they are also using CTL as an opportunity to create additional products, as we've been suggesting.
 
Some excerpts:
"Coal gasification-converting coal into gas for use as a feedstock for making chemicals like olefin and methanol-has been a pioneering project.... But its viability faces the intractable problem of waste gases being released into the environment. In response, advanced air separation was introduced to remove impurities from waste gases, making them reusable for synthetic ammonia and urea production. Carbon dioxide released from coal-fired power generation is also piped back in for use in urea production, effectively eliminating air pollution."
"The ashes left over from coal burning are used to make cement and other construction materials, while wastewater is also purified for circulation. In addition, all coal is required to go through desulphurization before burning for power generation to protect the environment and minimize the erosion of metal equipment."
Now, granted, all this is state-published information about a semi-state-run operation in a nation that's very sensitive about criticism from the outside. But, all of what they are proposing to do as far as protecting the environment, and reusing "wastes" from the coal conversion process as raw materials for other things, is both feasible and practical, as we have from other sources documented.
And, the Chinese are pragmatic, almost to a fault. If they are going to do all those things they say they are, then those things are probably worth, in a practical way, doing.
WVU has been involved in China's efforts, Mike, according to news releases we've previously brought to your attention. It might even be the "West Virginia Process" the Chinese are using to convert their coal into liquid fuels and chemicals.