USDOE Converts Coal, CO2 and H2O to Hydrocarbon Syngas

United States Patent Application: 0090235587

We have earlier reported on the development, by the same team of USDOE Idaho National Laboratory scientists we cite herein, of the technology sometimes labeled as "Syntrolysis", wherein a blend of Carbon Dioxide and Water, or Steam, is electrolyzed, and/or thermo-chemically decomposed, and made thereby to form a resultant blend of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, a synthesis gas, which can then be catalytically reacted; and, be thereby chemically condensed into liquid hydrocarbons.

Examples include:

USDOE Idaho Lab Recycles More CO2 | Research & Development; which discloses:  "Model of High Temperature H2O/CO2 Co-electrolysis"; and:

Exxon Co-Gasifies Coal and Carbon-Recycling Biomass

United States Patent Application: 0100083575

Buried deep in the "Background" section of the United States Patent Application we enclose herein, for a process developed by that lovable oily giant, ExxonMobil, is a statement which reveals the true intent and purpose of the invention, as follows:

"One established route to the production of hydrocarbon liquids is the gasification of carbonaceous materials followed by the conversion of the produced synthesis gas to form liquids by processes such as Fischer-Tropsch and its variants.

 

Shell Oil Coal to Gasoline with By-Product Isobutane

United States Patent: 4218388

The Dutch scientists who worked for Houston's Shell Oil Company were, in their formal Summary of the United States Patent we enclose herein, quite succinct about what their invention was, and is, all about.

It is, as they state: "a process for preparing liquid hydrocarbons from coal".

But, it is "a process for preparing liquid hydrocarbons from coal" with a slight twist; and, perhaps, with some unstated, though valuable, potentials.

Note, that, in the course of their Disclosure, these Shell scientists reveal that their Coal-to-Gasoline process generates one significant by-product: Isobutane.

 

CO2 Converts Ethane to Ethylene

http://www.nacatsoc.org/18nam/Posters/P103-Oxidative%20dehydrogenation%20of%20ethane%20to%20ethylene.pdf

Via: Ethane from Coal at 8 Cents a Pound | Research & Development; wherein it's disclosed, in the report: "Synthesis of Light Hydrocarbon Gases from Coal Gas; S. Singh, et. al.; Battelle Columbus Labs, OH; National meeting of the American Chemical Society;1976"; we can learn that, in 1976, a process had been developed which would, in addition to, primarily, synthesizing Methane from Coal, also generate, as a by-product, significant quantities of Ethane, at a cost, then, of only 8 cents a pound.

Again, the primary product of that technology is Methane, and, by now, from our many reports concerning the fact, including:Standard Oil 1944 CO2 + CH4 + H20 = Aviation Fuel | Research & Development | News; you should know, that, once we have Methane, CH4, as produced by, for just one example, the Battelle Labs' process, from Coal, we can react such Coal-derived Methane with Carbon Dioxide, recovered from whatever handy source, and thereby synthesize some very useful, and valuable, hydrocarbon compounds.

 

ConocoPhillips Recycles Even More CO2

United States Patent: 7273893

In an earlier dispatch, now accessible on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site via the link:

Conoco Converts CO2 to Methanol and Dimethyl Ether | Research & Development; we made report of:

"United States Patent 6,664,207 - Catalyst for Converting Carbon Dioxide to Oxygenates; 2003; Inventors: Jinhua Yao and James Kimble, OK; Assignee: ConocoPhillips Company, Houston; Abstract: A catalyst and process for converting carbon dioxide into ... methanol and dimethyl ether."

We mistakenly thought that US Patent, for technology which would enable us to convert Carbon Dioxide, reclaimed from whatever source, into such liquid fuels as Methanol and the substitute Diesel, DME, resulted from a US Patent Application we had even earlier reported, as in: