USDOE Algae Recycle More CO2 and Produce Hydrogen

United States Patent: 7642405

We've submitted many reports documenting the fact that industrial effluent, or even atmospheric, Carbon Dioxide can be effectively recycled, and converted into a number of valuable products, including liquid hydrocarbon fuels, through the industrialized mediation of specific microorganisms, with Green Algae being most often employed.

Our own United States Department of Energy, especially, has focused a great deal of effort on the development of such Algae-based technology, as our more recent spate of reports on their activities in that area of endeavor might reflect.

 

USDOE $2.00 Gasoline from Carbon Dioxide

Energy Citations Database (ECD) - - Document #6685301

The document we make introductory report of in this dispatch is, we are convinced, an important one; and, we are thus enclosing multiple links to it.

Furthermore, there are many details enclosed within the document that have direct bearing on, and implications for, the productive recycling of Carbon Dioxide in United States Coal Country, including, and in some cases especially, as we will illustrate in coming dispatches, West Virginia.

 

USDOE and Utah CO2 + H2O = Hydrocarbon Syngas

Electrochemical Cell for Production of Synthesis Gas Using Atmospheric Air and Water

We have submitted numerous reports documenting the fact that blends of Carbon Dioxide and Water, whether the CO2 is dissolved in liquid Water or whether the two are combined as gases, with the Water having been first converted into Steam, can be electrolyzed in specially-designed cells, and be thereby broken down into Hydrogen, Carbon Monoxide and Oxygen.

The Hydrogen and the Carbon Monoxide can then be reacted together, through a variety of long-known and well-established catalytic processes often generically labeled as one sort or another of "Fischer-Tropsch" technique, and be made thereby to form a wide variety of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons.

West Virginia & New York Coal to Hydrocarbon Syngas

PRODUCTION OF WATER GAS - FMC Corporation

We've previously reported on the development of Coal conversion technologies by the old FMC Corporation, including work at a New Jersey pilot plant that was funded by the US Government, as seen, for just a few examples, in:

FMC Liquefies Coal for USDOE in New Jersey | Research & Development; concerning: "Title: Char oil energy development. 1975; Research Organization: FMC Corporation, NY; DOE Contract Number: E(49-18)-1212; Abstract: Project COED has been under development by FMC Corporation since 1962. The COED process converts coal to synthetic crude oil, char and gas. The synthetic crude oil is low in sulfur and can be used as feedstock to a refinery or directly as a source of naphtha and fuel oil through simple distillation. The gas can be sold as fuel gas or converted by application of additional technology to pipeline gas or hydrogen"; and:

 

USDOE Algae Recycle CO2 into Liquid Fuels

Energy Citations Database (ECD) - - Document #920198

Although, when it comes to the very real potentials for the profitable recycling of Carbon Dioxide, we here are partial to more direct, chemical engineering technologies, such as, for basic examples, the Sabatier process, as described, for one instance, in:

NASA Rocket Fuel from CO2 | Research & Development; wherein we're informed, that: "Although Mars is not rich in methane, methane can be manufactured there via the Sabatier process: Mix some carbon dioxide (CO2) with hydrogen (H), then heat the mixture to produce CH4 and H20 -- methane and water. The Martian atmosphere is an abundant source of carbon dioxide, and the relatively small amount of hydrogen required for the process may be ... gathered from Martian ice";