Research & Development

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June 21, 2009

Professor Sunggyu Lee's Research Program 
 
We herein introduce you to Sunggyu Lee, PhD., Professor of Chemical Engineering, at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. 
 
Some excerpts from his research site:
 
Combined Coal and Biomass Gasification. As a follow-up to his earlier research in coal char gasification, Dr. Lee's life-long interest in green processing of coal and clean utilization of natural resources, the group has been involved in gasification of coal and biomass for synthesis gas generation. While coal has a higher fixed carbon contents than biomass, biomass contains valuable hydrogen and higher moisture contents than coal with very low sulfur contents. Further, serious handicaps using biomass as process raw materials stemming mostly from associated logistical burdens, such as collection, gathering, transportation, and sustainable low-cost supply to the processing plants, can be offset by using biomass together with coal. The mixed gasification has more realistic merits of synergistic feed material compositions and co-beneficiation potentials, besides ultimately increasing the use of renewable resources. Dr. Lee's group has special interests in the areas of steam gasification, advanced oxidation, plasma gasification, molten salt gasification, and beneficial use of CO2-rich syngas.

Reactive Utilization of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Dioxide Rich Synthesis Gas. Dr.Lee and his graduate researchers have long been studying the roles of carbon dioxide in many reactive chemical processes involving synthesis gas. These processes include, but not limited to: (1) methanol synthesis, (2) single-stage dimethylether synthesis, (3) formic acid synthesis, and (4) hydrocarbon synthesis from synthesis gas. For example, his research elucidated the roles of carbon dioxide and water in methanol synthesis and also found that, to some extent, the two have interchangeable roles in the synthesis. Further, this research firmly established the beneficial roles of carbon dioxide in both stabilization of Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst and potential beneficial transition of the catalyst ingredient of ZnO to ZnCO3 in a CO2-rich environment. Also, it was found that the liquid-phase synthesis of methanol demands a substantially higher concentration of carbon dioxide as an optimal syngas composition than the vapor-phase synthesis of methanol. The latter fact serves as a good starting point for further exploitation of carbon dioxide reaction chemistry. If properly managed, carbon dioxide can be very effectively and beneficially utilized in the reaction chemistry, thus claiming that carbon dioxide is not hopeless in its reactive conversion, rather is full of promise.

Conversion of Carbon Dioxide into Hydrocarbons . As briefly mentioned above, Dr. Lee's group and collaborators are investigating various chemical routes and associated catalysis that will lead to a major breakthrough of utilizing carbon dioxide as a reacting raw material for production of target hydrocarbons, thus establishing or helping establish the renewablility of carbon dioxide. Major collaborative efforts in this global research agenda are currently under way.
Mike, we introduce you to Dr. Lee to emphasize, if it does need more emphasis from us, that coal (and biomass) conversion to liquid fuels and chemical industry raw materials, and the practical utilization of the valuable by-products of coal use, such as Carbon Dioxide, are well-known, widely-understood technologies that are undergoing continued refinement and improvement in many commercial, academic and government venues.
 
And, it's odd to think of something like "the renewability of carbon dioxide" as being desireable, isn't it?

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June 21, 2009

Carbon Recycling: An Alternative To Carbon Capture And Storage | CleanTechBrief 
 

The enclosed article is about yet another entrepreneurial start-up focused on the use of, actually not-so-new technology to reclaim Carbon Dioxide and recycle it into useful substances.
 
The transmutation of CO2 into formic acid and formates, as below, is, apparently, well-known and understood as there seem to be more than just this one enterprise now starting up with that goal as their focus.
 
Formic acid, and it's salts, might not seem too exciting, but the compounds do have industrial applications and, as noted in the excerpt, can be used in fuel cells in a variety of ways. Just another way coal and it's by-products can help with the transportation fuel crisis, we suggest.
 
The excerpts:.
 
""The market (for CO2 recycling and resultant products - JtM) is open for innovation," states Larry Kristof, CEO of Mantra Energy, a company gaining international recognition in the field of carbon recycling. "It is likely that governments will soon legally mandate carbon capture from industrial plants and there needs to be a cost-effective way to implement it," says Kristof." 
"Mantra's technology, named the electro-reduction of carbon dioxide (ERC), aims to take CO2 directly from industrial waste gases and convert it to formate salts and/or formic acid, both valuable chemicals used in a variety of industrial applications. Formic acid also has the potential to play a leading role in fuel cell development, both as a direct fuel and as a fuel storage material for on-demand release of hydrogen."
(We have previously described the process of Carbon Dioxide reduction, and noted that it can be accomplished via several processes - electrolytic, enzymatic, photolytic. Reducing CO2 into the very useful and reactive CO and pure, life-sustaining O2 is a well-known and understood chemical transaction.. - JtM)
"The ERC technology could provide a net revenue of up to US$700 per tonne of CO2 recycled, with an ROI previously forecast at 20% per year, depending on local costs."
(Worth doing, it would seem. - JtM)
"Carbon recycling options being developed globally vary considerably. The range includes the biochemical conversion of CO2 into algal biofuel, the thermochemical conversion into methanol and the biocatalytic or solar photocatalytic conversion of CO2 to fuels."
There are, plainly, a lot of options for dealing with our CO2 "problem", and dealing with it profitably. The problem, in fact, is beginning to sound to us like a huge opportunity - an opportunity to capitalize on our vast coal resources to solve all of our energy need, via full employment of coal and all of it's valuable by-products, and to lead us into an entirely new era of economic stability and environmental renewal.

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June 20, 2009

Method for removing water contained in solid using liquid material - Patent # 7537700 - PatentGenius
 
Mike,
 
The excerpt, with comment following:
 
"Title:
Method for removing water contained in solid using liquid material
Document Type and Number:
United States Patent 7537700

Abstract:
A method and a system for removing water from high water content solid such as high water content coal, which enables dewatering with small energy consumption. A liquefied material which is a gas at 25° C. under 1 atm. (hereinafter referred to as material D) is contacted with a solid containing water to allow the liquefied material D to dissolve the water contained in the solid, and to produce a liquefied material D having a high water content and simultaneously remove the water from the solid, and by vaporizing the material D in the liquefied material having a high water content, to thereby separate the water from the resulting gaseous material D, recovering the separated gaseous material D, and liquefying the recovered gaseous material by pressurizing, cooling or a combination thereof, to reuse the resulting liquefied material for removing water from a solid containing water.

Inventors:
Kanda, Hideki (Kanagawa, JP)
Shirai, Hiromi (Kanagawa, JP)" 
 
Mike, further research reveals that the "Solid" which contains the water is, in fact, coal, and nothing else. And, the mysterious "material D" noted in the Abstract, by these Japanese inventors, is, in fact, dimethyl ether (DME). Both facts can be documented through other sources detailing Patent 7537700.
 
One point of this is: DME is a very versatile liquid fuel, aside from being - in this US patent awarded to Japanese researchers - a water solvent. It can be substituted directly for automotive diesel, and it can, with relatively simple processing, be converted into methanol, or, perhaps more significantly, gasoline.
 
And, you can extract, or synthesize, DME with commercial alacrity from coal. In fact, much of the production from China's ambitious coal-to-liquid industrial plans is slated to be in the form of DME.
 
Further, Malaysia is developing, as we've documented, with Japanese assistance, a coal-to-liquid conversion industry which will convert high-ash and high-moisture lignite coal into liquid fuels - likely DME.
 
The main point is this: The technology for converting coal, even low-grade, high-moisture lignite, and perhaps some coal mine wastes, into liquid fuel is becoming more refined, sophisticated and economical. In this patent is described technology wherein the potential product of coal-to-liquid fuel conversion is itself efficiently used, while on it's way to final processing steps, to clean and prepare new, incoming raw material for the initial conversion process, to make it more efficient to effect the actual conversion. Other, more detailed, descriptions of this patent from other sources describe how both the extraction of water from brown coal with DME, and then the dehydration of the DME, are efficient, low-energy input processes.
 
The technology for converting coal into liquid fuels (CTL) is, through developments like this, becoming quite sophisticated, and much more economical. It is, Mike, almost in secret being reduced to commercial practice - efficient and quite sophisticated commercial practice that could well make CTL more than competitive with petroleum.

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June 20, 2009

Carbon Sciences Innovations in Recycling CO2 Into Fuel Acknowledged During Congressional Hearing on Capitol Hill - FOXBusines. 

 
We have been urging that we, the people of the United States, stop wasting time and effort in an endless, unproductive wrangle about how to best throw away a potentially-valuable resource: the Carbon Dioxide generated as a by-product of our coal use; and, instead, focus our efforts on finding ways to  efficiently collect and profitably use it.
 
In support of our argument, we submit the enclosed expert testimony to our US Congress.
 
Some excerpts from the link:
"SANTA BARBARA, CA, May 11, 2009 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) ----Carbon Sciences Inc., the developer of a breakthrough technology to recycle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into gasoline and other fuels, announced that its innovative approach to carbon recycling was recognized in a testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development Hearing on "Beneficial Reuse of Carbon Dioxide from Coal and Other Fossil Fuel Facilities" held on May 6."
(First, why wasn't this hearing publicized? Sounds to us like it should have been headline news in Appalachia, or anywhere else coal is mined to put bread on the table. - JtM)
"Margie Tatro, Director of Fuel and Water Systems at Sandia National Laboratories, the multi-program national security laboratory owned by the U.S. Department of Energy and Sandia Corporation, testified on the environmental and economic benefits that would be achieved with significant investments in the carbon recycling sector. The principle focus of Tatro's congressional testimony was on carbon recycling technologies, which she believes hold the most promise in carbon management over other approaches such as reducing, reusing or burying CO2."
"Tatro explained, "The U.S. economy and environment would benefit from investments in scalable technologies and processes for recycling of carbon dioxide (CO2) as one option for addressing two critical, yet interrelated, challenges facing our nation and the world -- stabilizing the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere and producing new supplies of liquid hydrocarbon fuels that help reduce our dependence on petroleum."
"Her testimony continued outlining specific carbon management options. Recognizing other progressive work in carbon recycling, Tatro said, "Hybrid biological and electrical approaches are showing progress. Examples include work at Princeton and announcements from the private sector, such as Carbon Sciences.""
We have previously documented for you some of the work at Princeton, and we will provide some documentation concerning Carbon Sciences, who are commercializing a technology purchased from, or assigned by, Canada's University of British Columbia, in Vancouver.
Point is, again: Carbon Dioxide arising from full implementation of our vast coal resources, whether we are using that coal to generate power or to synthesize much-needed liquid fuel and chemical manufacturing raw materials, is itself a valuable raw material resource, and we shouldn't allow ourselves to be either panicked by idealistic, but misinformed, utopians into pumping it all down geologic storage rat holes, or otherwise swindled by special commercial interests into strangling our coal-based industries.