IOAC: Production of Methanol From Flue Gas Carbon Dioxide

 

 

First, an excerpt:

 

"This innovative process captures a portion of the carbon dioxide from the stack gas of the Coleson Cove Power Generating Station, and then produces high purity methanol product.  Carbon dioxide emission is abated and a valuable fuel is produced in the process."

 

We've compiled a body of similar information, and will be transmitting it. This one, though, is significant in that it reports on an actual reduction to practice of CO2 capture from coal/carbon utilization processes, and it's subsequent transformation into more liquid fuel.

 

The sum is: We can utilize our coal to supply our energy needs, and then use the byproducts of the utilization processes to make more liquid fuel. The use of coal doesn't create pollutants, it generates valuable raw materials as by-products.

 

Comment follows:

Science Links Japan | Methanol Synthesis from CO and CO2 Hydrogenations over Supported Palladium Catalysts.

 

"Abstract;The hydrogenation of CO and CO2 was carried out over palladium catalysts supported on various metal oxides. A significant support effect of Ga2O3 on the methanol synthesis activity from CO2 hydrogenation was observed. On the other hand, a Pd/ZrO2 catalyst showed high methanol synthesis activity from CO hydrogenation. Furthermore, the hydrogenation reaction over Pd/Ga2O3 and Pd/ZrO2 catalysts was investigated by in situ infrared spectroscopy in order to understand the active sites and the reaction mechanism. On the Pd/Ga2O3 catalyst, surface formate and methoxy species were observed during CO and CO2 hydrogenation. In contrast, the reaction pathway was clearly different between CO and CO2 hydrogenation over the Pd/ZrO2 catalyst. That is, surface formaldehyde and methoxy species were observed as intermediates during CO hydrogenation, while surface formate and methoxy species were detected during CO2 hydrogenation. It was thus found that the reaction mechanisms of methanol synthesis from CO and CO2 hydrogenation were strongly dependent on the types of supports over the Pd catalysts. (author abst.)"

 

We've informed you of Japan's research into CTL technologies, and of their war-time use of it to make liquid fuel at Ube in the early 1940's.

 

One of the processes for converting coal to liquid is referred to, somewhat generically, as hydrogenation. In this study, we see that a couple of coal combustion, or coal-to-liquid conversion, by-products can also be captured and hydrogenated, to make more liquid fuel.

Green Glass: Carbon Dioxide to Methanol

 

 

The expected excerpt:

 

"Some fancy footwork with enzymes and a special kind of glass could offer a way to convert carbon dioxide emissions from power plants into methanol, says SIUC materials chemist Bakul Dave. He and a former student of his have demonstrated the feasibility of the idea on a laboratory scale."

 

This is laboratory scale, and we've already informed you of one commercial reduction to practice.

 

But, SIUC appears to be very active in coal utilization research, and we wanted to highlight more of their efforts and suggest, again, that solutions - profitable solutions - to the "problem" of coal-derived CO2 are both here, and on the way.

Small-Scale Fischer-Tropsch | Lenfest

 

Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University

 

We're sending this along as it relates to a concept we introduced much earlier on in this project.

 

The intro/abstract:

 

"This research seeks to test the scaling laws for the energy industry. Do the conditions that placed a premium on large-scale energy infrastructure persist, or are there economies of scale to be reaped from an aggregation of smaller units? This question will be applied to the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, a process by which an array of liquid hydrocarbons is produced from carbonaceous synthesis gas, through a case study that is in its own right a deliverable result. This case study will produce a model testing the potential advantages of liquid hydrocarbon production under the small-scale paradigm."

 

We've several times suggested the possibility of exploiting WV's scattered coal waste accumulations, and supported the concept by:

-  citing the low BTU/high ash content of Great Plains lignite - which is being developed for the purposes of conversion at several locations - as being comparable to some WV coal spoil

- documenting the Schuykill, PA, coal waste-to-liquid effort, and

- noting Joe's WVU graduate research into the organic and chemical content of coal spoil and spoil leachate.

 

We did earlier suggest to you the potential of using mobile Fischer-Tropsch processors, or other coal conversion units if their technologies are amenable, to move about the state, as needed, to both clean up - and use - coal mine waste piles and seasonal, or occasional, accumulations of crop and forestry wastes.

 

Keep in mind that properly-designed and specified CTL conversion processors can utilize cellulose as a feed, which relates as well to our original suggestion that algal bio-reactors could be employed to clean CO2 from the off-gasses of CTL processes, with the algae then added to the raw material. However, if you've followed our dispatches in detail, you now know that CO2 can be directly reclaimed from CTL gas effluent and turned back into the CTL process stream, with simple additives, as additional raw material for liquid hydrocarbon synthesis.