C02 to Syngass to Fuel

 

 
"The use of electrolytically produced syngas for producing renewable liquid fuels is discussed; an energy-storage cycle based on such liquid fuels is CO2-neutral, similar to hydrogen, and has the potential to be more efficient and easier to implement."
 
This is important, Mike. It reinforces some of our earlier dispatches regarding the actual employment of CO2, arising from coal use - whether the coal is used for power, chemicals or liquid fuels - as a raw material for more liquid fuels (and other useful things, actually).
 
The process described herein uses water and carbon dioxide, as we earlier suggested, and documented, to be possible, and practical, to make syngas, which you should by now know can be easily produced from coal. Syngas can then be transformed, via several established processes, into liquid fuel
 
It is, as an expert in this field just wrote us: "Game changing".

Methanol - Fuel of the Future

 

In this very recent article, you will find these, excerpted, passages: 

"The best way to make methanol is by steam reforming methane, produced when syngas - a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide - is turned into liquid hydrocarbons via reactions such as the Fischer-Tropsch process."

(We must assume by this, with our limited capacity and understanding, that methane is produced as a by-product of converting coal to liquid fuel via Fischer-Tropsch processing. Another bonus of the process, perhaps.)

"The process is used today to make diesel and other liquid fuels from coal, and kept South African cars going during the country's international isolation in the 1980s and 90s."

We send this only to reinforce the fact that the technology for making liquid fuels, and chemical manufacturing raw materials, from coal, is established and understood. Why it has not yet been reduced to broad commercial practice in the United States, with all the domestic economic benefits such an industry would create, is a question that must be answered. And, the answer, since we don't have such an industry, with all it's benefits, has to be wrong. It should be corrected.

Costs: Expert Talks About Coal Liquefaction

 
 
Some questions have arisen about the actual costs of coal-to-liquid, and its economic viability.
 
We had earlier addressed that issue to some degree, and, rather than go back through our research, we submit the following quote, excerpted from the enclosed article link, by an expert at the National Research Center for Coal and Energy (NRCCE) at West Virginia University:
 
"Dr. Jerry Fletcher, an environmental economics professor at the NRCCE, said until recently, coal liquefaction hasn’t been a particular focus of U.S. Energy policy. But the situation is rapidly changing, according to Fletcher.

“Our estimate is that this (CoalTL - JtM) can produce fuel at $45 to $50 a barrel, that’s far less than the current prices in the seventies,” Fletcher said. That could ultimately mean lower gas prices for consumers."."

Venture to Make Algae Fuel From Coal Plant Emissions

 
We had earlier informed you of this work in Arizona, but herein is more detail.
 
An excerpt:
 
"Cambridge, Mass.-based GreenFuel Technologies has also developed a bioreactor that uses power plant pollution to grow algae. The company had to suspend its pilot project with an Arizona utility earlier this year because it grew more algae than it could harvest (Emphasis added. It must work, apparently. - JtM)."
 
Also mentioned is a similar project in Australia, undertaken by Linc Energy, who, as we've documented, with their partners, are active in coal-to-liquid developments, and who also intend capturing CO2 emissions - not just from coal-fired power plants, but from CTL facilities, as well.
 
Once more: CO2 should not be seen as a harmful pollutant arising from our use of coal, but instead as a valuable by-product, which we can capture and employ via several processes to achieve some useful and profitable things.

Clean-Coal-to-Liquids

 
Here is more documentation concerning the fact that CO2 - whether arising from coal-fired power plants, or, in this additional example, again from Australia's Linc Energy, from the production of liquid fuel from coal - can be safely captured and profitably used.
 
An excerpt:
 
"Linc Energy has formed a Joint Venture (JV) with BioCleanCoal to develop a bioreactor which will convert CO2 into oxygen and solid biomass through a photosynthesis process. The aim is to permanently and safely remove CO2 from Linc Energy’s coal-to-liquids processes thereby preventing it from entering the atmosphere."
 
The "biomass" - algae, no doubt - can then be used for a variety of useful purposes, such as animal feed, or, as we've documented, even as additional raw material for a properly selected and designed coal-to-liquid conversion facility.