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We have introduced you previously to Brookhaven National Laboratory's "Carnol" process for recycling Carbon Dioxide. Herein is more detail, and a fuller explanation of how the Carbon Dioxide co-product of our coal-fired-power and coal-to-liquid-conversion facilities could, and should, be used as a valuable raw material resource.
The excerpt:
"The Carnol process system for CO2 mitigation and methanol production
Meyer Steinberg
Engineering Research and Applications Division, Department of Advanced Technology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973-5000, U.S.A.
Abstract
The feasibility of an alternative CO2 mitigation system and a methanol production process is investigated. The Carnol system has three components: (i) a coal-fired power plant supplying flue gas CO2, (ii) a process which converts the CO2 in the presence of He (Correction: "H", hydrogen, is intended by the author, not "He", helium - JtM) from natural gas to methanol, (iii) use of methanol as a fuel component in the automotive sector. For the methanol production process alone, up to 100% CO2 emission reduction can be achieved; for the entire system, up to 65% CO2 emission reduction can be obtained. The Carnol system is technically feasible and economically competitive with alternative CO2-disposal systems for coal-fired power plants. The Carnol process is estimated to be economically attractive compared to the current market price of methanol, especially if credit can be taken for carbon as a marketable coproduct."
We think it important to repeat a few passages:
"For the methanol production process alone, up to 100% CO2 emission reduction can be achieved; for the entire system, up to 65% CO2 emission reduction can be obtained."
"The Carnol system is technically feasible and economically competitive with alternative CO2-disposal systems for coal-fired power plants. The Carnol process is estimated to be economically attractive compared to the current market price of methanol, especially if credit can be taken for carbon as a marketable coproduct."
We can potentially convert, as we understand it, 100% of a coal plant's CO2 emissions into liquid fuel. That would result in an overall reduction of CO2 emissions of 65% for the complete coal-power and CO2-to-liquid-fuel recovery system. And, we get a liquid fuel, methanol, which we can convert into gasoline if we want to, in the bargain.
Steinberg's economic "kicker" seems to be one we've earlier suggested: The methanol system is economically attractive "if credit can be taken for carbon as a marketable coproduct". We presume him to refer to the market for trading carbon credits, established by Cap & Trade legislation.
In any case, we reaffirm that Carbon Dioxide is a valuable by-product of our coal use, and we can find profitable ways to use it. We shouldn't punish our coal industries for making the opportunity possible.
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Methanol as an agent for CO2 mitigation
We again cite M. Steinberg, of Brookhaven National Laboratory, on the subject of Carbon Dioxide recycling into the liquid fuel, methanol, as a more economically-attractive and advantageous option to the current, costly and unproductive, proposalss for dealing with CO2 emissions from our coal-use facilities: sequestration and cap & trade.
The excerpt:
"M. Steinberg
Dept. Of Advanced Technology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, N.Y. 11973, USA
Abstract
The Carnol System consists of methanol production by CO2 recovered from coal fired power plants and natural gas and the use of the methanol as an alternative automotive fuel. The Carnol Process produces hydrogen by the thermal decomposition of natural gas and reacting the hydrogen with CO2 recovered from the power plant. The carbon produced can be stored or used as a materials commodity. A design and economic evaluation of the process is presented and compared to gasoline as an automotive fuel. An evaluation of the CO2 emission reduction of the process and system is made and compared to other conventional methanol production processes including the use of biomass feedstock and methanol fuel cell vehicles. The CO2 emission for the entire Carnol System using methanol in automotive IC engines can be reduced by 56% compared to the conventional system of coal fuel power plants and gasoline driven engines and by as much as 77% CO2 emission reduction when methanol is used in fuel cells for automotive purposes. The Carnol System is shown to be an environmentally attractive and economically viable system connecting the power generation sector with the transportation sector which should warrant further development."
We want to note that the several explications of the Carnol System we've forwarded propose, as does this one, obtaining Hydrogen, for the synthesis of fuels from CO2, from methane. Other references document that the needed Hydrogen can be obtained from the electrolysis of water, from syngas generated from biomass, and from other industrial sources.
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We've reported on this Wyoming CTL project previously, but thought we should send this update along.
An excerpt:
"COAL TO DIESEL PROJECT
This part of the project is already underway in Carbon County and will use technology from several providers including: GE Infrastructure Technology LLC patented and proprietary coal gasification technology and Rentech, Inc of Denver Fischer Tropsch technology.
The diesel produced will be taken and marketed by Sinclair Oil Corporation.
There will be a surplus of clean power produced at the plant, amounting to around 45MW in the initial phases and this will be sold to local electricity suppliers. Carbon dioxide will be sequestered via pipeline, sulphur will be solidified and sold to the agricultural market, hydrogen may also be produced from surplus syn gas."
We're glad they're capturing the sulfur for commercial use, as we've documented to be feasible. But, as we've explained, "sequestering" CO2 is short-sighted and wasteful. It, too, through different processing options, could be transformed into liquid fuel.
But, make note of the fact that, as they generate liquid fuel, they will be co-generating surplus electric power as another profitable by-product.
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Advanced materials for global carbon dioxide recycling
We herein present more, with more to follow, on Japanese proposals to recycle the CO2 by-product of our coal use.
Notable, we think, in these Japanese studies, is the fact that so many researchers, and so many institutions, are putting their names on these reports. Given Japanese culture, it must be a point of honor with them. They are standing together to make public a concept and a technology they know to be true and viable, in the face of mass ignorance and blind opposition.
The excerpt, from our CO2 samurai:
"K. Hashimoto, H. Habazaki, M. Yamasaka, S. Meguro, T. Sasaki, H. Katagir, T. Matsui, K. Fujimura, K. Izumiya, N. Kumagai and E. Akiyama
Tohoku Institute of Technology, Sendai 982-8588, Japan
Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan
Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Ichihara, Chiba 290-8601, Japan
Daiki Engineering Co. Ltd., Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8515, Japan
National Research Institute for Metals, Sengen, Tsukuba 305-0047, Japan
Abstract
CO2 emission increase inducing global warming occurs mostly with the growth of the economic activity. Global CO2 recycling can prevent global warming and supply abundant renewable energy. Global CO2 recycling consists of three district: The electricity is generated by solar cells on deserts. At coasts close to the deserts, the electricity is used for hydrogen production by seawater electrolysis and hydrogen is used for methane production by the reaction with CO2. Methane (CH4) is liquefied and transported to energy consuming districts where after CH4 is used as a fuel CO2 is recovered, liquefied and transported to the coasts close to the deserts. Key materials necessary for the global CO2 recycling are the anode and cathode for seawater electrolysis and the catalyst for CO2 conversion. All of them have been tailored by us. Amorphous and nanocrystalline nickel alloys are active cathodes for hydrogen production in seawater electrolysis. Anodically deposited nanocrystalline Mn–Mo and Mn–W oxides are the unique substance which can evolve oxygen with 100% efficiency without evolving chlorine in seawater electrolysis. Amorphous Ni–Zr alloys are excellent precursors of catalysts for conversion of CO2 into CH4 by the reaction with hydrogen at 1 atm. A prototype CO2 recycling plant to supply clean energy preventing global warming has been built on the roof of our Institute (IMR) in 1996 using these key materials and has been operating successfully."
Methane is reasonably useful stuff in it's own right, but can be, as we've previously documented, transformed through various catalytic procedures into more complex hydrocarbons, including liquid fuels.
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The linked article was published in the popular media in 2003, and we're surprised the ideas haven't since then received broader public dissemination. We've already introduced the concept of Carbon Dioxide recycling, as opposed to expensive taxation schemes like Cap and Trade - which is nothing more than a tax on the coal industry in the ugly disguise of a shell game; and, the wasteful concept of Geologic Sequestration - which nothing more, at best, than the coal industry's enforced subsidization of the oil industry's scraping of dry soup pots; or, at worst, the costly stuffing of rat holes with a potentially-valuable raw material resource. But, this is one of the few magazine rack examples we've located, and we're submitting it now as an introduction to other, perhaps more credible, references we intend to forward.
The excerpt(s):
"The name Nakamichi Yamasaki won't ring any bells unless you are a specialist in the arcane branch of chemistry called solvothermal reactions. Yamasaki, a research scientist at Tohoku University in Japan, detailed his experiments at last summer's International Conference on Solvothermal Reactions, organized by Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Yamasaki reported that his team had successfully combined carbon from CO22 problem because it would consume more energy than there would be in the resulting fuel. and hydrogen from hydrochloric acid to produce a hydrocarbon gas that included methane, ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene and butane. Chemists have known that this type of reaction was possible. But it had been ruled out as a potential solution to the CO
Yamasaki solved this problem by using an iron powder and magnetite catalyst. The catalyst reduces the reaction temperature to the point at which the necessary process heat could be obtained by using the waste heat from power plants."
(We've noted the use of Iron-group metals and minerals as syngas liquefaction catalysts in coal-to-liquid processes. Note here the use of hydrochloric acid as the Hydrogen donor, which might reduce the cost of obtaining the needed Hydrogen ions relative to the electrolysis of water; or, it might be a more effective and simpler way to carry free Hydrogen into the synthesis reaction. And, note the additional synergy of using waste heat from a coal-fired power plant to attain the needed reaction temperature. - JtM)
"Changing Nature
J. Craig Venter is a scientist whose name does ring bells. Venter is a former government scientist who became a multimillionaire when he persuaded investors to back his private effort to decode the genetic map contained in human DNA. Last spring he used some of that fortune to create the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives (IBEA). "The IBEA staff will use microbes, microbial genomics, microbial pathways and plants as potential solutions to carbon sequestration and clean energy production," explains lab spokesperson Heather Kowalski."
We've reported Venter's work previously, in connection with the potentials for the biological extraction of liquid values from both coal and coal mine wastes.
In any case, the potential for recovering and recycling the valuable Carbon Dioxide by-product of our coal use is quite real, and we will provide further documentation of that fact.
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