WV Coal Member Meeting 2024 1240x200 1 1

No Restrictions on Fossil-Fuel Use - No Global Warming!

 
We had earlier referenced the work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which focused on extracting CO2 from the atmosphere itself, and here is a link to one of their own releases on the subject.
 
We have highlighted, in the excerpt below, a very important passage that reinforces what we have earlier documented: Once you have the CO2, you can hydrogenate it, with Hydrogen extracted from water, to make more liquid hydrocarbon fuel.
 
As follows:

"LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 9, 2002 -- Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory are studying a simple, cost effective method for extracting carbon dioxide directly from the air — which could allow sustained use of fossil fuels while avoiding potential global climate change.

The method would allow researchers to harvest carbon dioxide from the air, reducing buildup of the so-called "greenhouse gas" in the atmosphere and allowing it to be converted into fuel. A Los Alamos-led research team today presented the topic at the 223rd annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Orlando, Fla."

Capture CO2 for Fuel Production

 
 
Yet another of our prestigious US National Laboratories developing ways to collect Carbon Dioxide from our atmosphere itself - and, one would presume, from the flues of coal-use factories - and then converting the collected CO2 into more liquid fuel.
 
The excerpts: 

"Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a process—called Green Freedom—for large-scale production of carbon-neutral, sulfur-free fuels and organic chemicals from air and water. The primary targets for the Green Freedom fuels are vehicles and aircraft."

"Green Freedom consists of two major components: syngas (synthesis gas) production and syngas conversion. The innovation of the new process resides primarily in the method for the production of the syngas; Green Freedom relies on commercially available technology to convert the resulting syngas into product. (i.e., Liquid Fuel)"

"Green Freedom uses a newly-developed electrolytic stripping process that can capture production quantities of air; capture more than 95% of the carbon dioxide on a single pass; and produces hydrogen as a byproduct that reduces supplemental hydrogen production requirements by 33%. (In the article, they explain that the needed supplemental Hydrogen can be easily electrolyzed from water, with pure Oxygen as the by-product, as we've previously suggested)"

Carbon Dioxide Capture from Atmospheric Air

 
 
We present the attached in support of our contention that concerns over Carbon Dioxide emissions should not, in any way, slow our efforts to develop a domestic industry producing liquid fuel from coal.
 
Some excerpts:
 
"Joshuah K. Stolaroff§, David W. Keith‡ and Gregory V. Lowry*†
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, and Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213"
 
Note that some authorship is credited to Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, PA. As with the experts we have previously identified for you at West Virginia University, they, if you are interested, should be easily accessible for follow-up.
 
And, a key conclusion drawn from the Abstract, which is reproduced in it's entirety, following: 
 
"The analysis indicates that CO2 capture from air for climate change mitigation is technically feasible using off-the-shelf technology."   

"Abstract

In contrast to conventional carbon capture systems for power plants and other large point sources, the system described in this paper captures CO22 captured. A prototype system is constructed and tested to measure CO2 absorption, energy use, and evaporative water loss and compared with theoretical predictions. A numerical model of drop collision and coalescence is used to estimate operating parameters for a full-scale system, and the cost of operating the system per unit CO2 captured is estimated. The analysis indicates that CO2 capture from air for climate change mitigation is technically feasible using off-the-shelf technology. Drop coalescence significantly decreases the CO2 absorption efficiency; however, fan and pump energy requirements are manageable. Water loss is significant (20 mol H2O/mol CO2 at 15 °C and 65% RH) but can be lowered by appropriately designing and operating the system. The cost of CO2 capture using NaOH spray (excluding solution recovery and CO2 sequestration, which may be comparable) in the full-scale system is 96 $/ton-CO2 in the base case, and ranges from 53 to 127 $/ton-CO2 under alternate operating parameters and assumptions regarding capital costs and mass transfer rate. The low end of the cost range is reached by a spray with 50 µm mean drop diameter, which is achievable with commercially available spray nozzles." directly from ambient air. This has the advantages that emissions from diffuse sources and past emissions may be captured. The objective of this research is to determine the feasibility of a NaOH spray-based contactor for use in an air capture system by estimating the cost and energy requirements per unit CO

In other words, Mike, the technology to capture and remove CO2 from the atmosphere itself, it's components, at least, are "on the shelf" and commercially available. Once we have the CO2 captured, we can, as we have documented and will further document, use it to manufacture more liquid fuel.

CO2 & Renewable Liquid Fuels - Palo Alto Research Center

 
We had earlier reported on some of the work at Palo Alto, but the following excerpts capture the distilled essence of it:
 
"To address this challenge, we are developing technologies capable of capturing CO2 at atmospheric concentrations and delivering it at high concentrations. This concentrated CO2 can then be combined with hydrogen from electrolysis (of water - JtM) to form liquid hydrocarbon fuel... "
 
"PARC continues to research and develop high-pressure, pH-controlled prototype optimized for CO2 concentration. Further research will combine this air capture technique with thermocatalytic conversion of CO2 or with reverse water-gas shift reaction and Fischer-Tropsch for “carbon neutral” hydrocarbon fuels synthesis."

US Patent Hydrocarbons from CO2

 
 
Yet another US Patent for the conversion of captured CO2 into liquid hydrocarbon - this time, Methanol is both an end product, or an intermediary to the making of gasoline. Note the use of zeolite as a catalyst. Zeolite catalysis is at the heart of Exxon-Mobil's own, patented and being commercialized, "MTG" - Methanol To Gasoline - technology, wherein Exxon-Mobil posits obtaining their synthesis gas from coal.
 
The excerpts: 
 
"Title:
Hybrid catalyst for hydrocarbon synthesis via hydrogenation of carbon dioxide
Document Type and Number:
United States Patent 6376562

Abstract:
The present invention provides a hybrid catalyst which is prepared by mixing a methanol synthesis catalyst with SAPO-type zeolite as a methanol conversion catalyst, and a process for the preparation of hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide by using the hybrid catalyst. The hybrid catalyst of the invention can be used for preparing hydrocarbons having a carbon number of more than 2 from carbon dioxide under a relatively on the hydrocarbons produced. Therefore, the hybrid catalyst may be used for preparing various high-valued hydrocarbons from an ubiquitous carbon source of carbon dioxide. "
 
Our own US patent inspectors have certified the validity of this technology for actually using the coal-use by-product Carbon Dioxide, Mike, using it to make liquid fuel.. Isn't it time everyone knew about it?