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Yet another of our prestigious US National Laboratories developing ways to collect Carbon Dioxide from our atmosphere itself - and, one would presume, from the flues of coal-use factories - and then converting the collected CO2 into more liquid fuel.
The excerpts:
"Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a process—called Green Freedom—for large-scale production of carbon-neutral, sulfur-free fuels and organic chemicals from air and water. The primary targets for the Green Freedom fuels are vehicles and aircraft."
"Green Freedom consists of two major components: syngas (synthesis gas) production and syngas conversion. The innovation of the new process resides primarily in the method for the production of the syngas; Green Freedom relies on commercially available technology to convert the resulting syngas into product. (i.e., Liquid Fuel)"
"Green Freedom uses a newly-developed electrolytic stripping process that can capture production quantities of air; capture more than 95% of the carbon dioxide on a single pass; and produces hydrogen as a byproduct that reduces supplemental hydrogen production requirements by 33%. (In the article, they explain that the needed supplemental Hydrogen can be easily electrolyzed from water, with pure Oxygen as the by-product, as we've previously suggested)"
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We had earlier referenced the work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which focused on extracting CO2 from the atmosphere itself, and here is a link to one of their own releases on the subject.
We have highlighted, in the excerpt below, a very important passage that reinforces what we have earlier documented: Once you have the CO2, you can hydrogenate it, with Hydrogen extracted from water, to make more liquid hydrocarbon fuel.
As follows:
"LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 9, 2002 -- Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory are studying a simple, cost effective method for extracting carbon dioxide directly from the air — which could allow sustained use of fossil fuels while avoiding potential global climate change.
The method would allow researchers to harvest carbon dioxide from the air, reducing buildup of the so-called "greenhouse gas" in the atmosphere and allowing it to be converted into fuel. A Los Alamos-led research team today presented the topic at the 223rd annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Orlando, Fla."
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As we have been reporting, CO2 can be harvested on an industrial scale, not only from the exhaust flues of coal-fired power plants and coal-to-liquid conversion facilities, but from the atmosphere itself.
An excerpt:
"In this contribution, we report on the experimental demonstration of a continuously operating modified fuel cell capable of capturing CO2 at atmospheric concentrations with record efficiency. The atmosphere provides O2 and CO2 at the cathode, with CO2 transported from the cathode to the anode as HCO3- and CO3-- ions. These ions then combine with H+ ions at the anode to form concentrated CO2 gas. We measure the energy expended per amount of CO2 captured, and find that our system is the most energy-efficient atmospheric CO2 capture device demonstrated to date, greatly improving on our previously reported results. Other demonstrations of electrochemical CO2 capture [2] have focused on higher CO2 concentrations (800 ppm - 4300 ppm) as they were designed for the removal of CO2 from enclosed spaces like submarines and space shuttles, not the atmosphere. For comparison, at 800 ppm our system uses two times less energy (< 2 MW-hr/ton) than previous demonstrations."
Once you have the CO2, as we've documented, you can do some useful things with it - besides pump it down a rat hole or put bubbles in your soda. You can use it, in conjunction with Hydrogen, electrolyzed from water, to make more liquid fuel.
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We have detailed how carbon emissions from coal plants can be captured and profitably utilized, and we've cited information from Sasol, in South Africa, regarding the control of Nitrogen emissions from CTL facilities.
The Japanese have addressed NxO emissions, as well, perhaps relative to their Southeast Asia CTL enterprises, also earlier documented. You will recall that Japan, as well as Germany, in WWII developed coal-to-liquid fuel technology for their military, and at least one CTL factory in Japan, at Kobe, became a strategic target of Allied bombing because of it's importance.
Some excerpts from the linked article:
"Yoichi Koderaa, Koji Ukegawaa, Yutaka Mito*, Masashi Komoto†, Etsuro Ishikawa† and Tetsuo Nakayama
National Research Institute for Pollution and Resources, 16-3 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan
Abstract
Nitrogen compounds were separated efficiently from coal liquids (emphasis - JtM) by solvent extraction with methanol and water. Middle distillates of Wandoan and Battle River coal liquid and a mixture of model compounds were employed as feed oils. This paper reports the experimental conditions for the effective separation of nitrogen compounds, such as quinoline and indole. In particular, the effects of extraction solvents on extraction yield and selectivities of nitrogen compounds were investigated."
There should, in any case, have been no doubt that Nitrogen can be "separated efficiently from coal liquids". If you will recall, a significant part of the production from China's planned 88 coal-to-liquid conversion plants will intentionally be directed toward the synthesis of nitrogenous fertilizer for their agricultural industries.
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The title says it all. But, as is our wont, we'll elaborate with some excerpts we believe to be of import, as follows:
"Dr Drew Shindell of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies has led a new study which indicates that much of the general upward trend in temperatures since the 1970s - particularly in the Arctic - may have resulted from changes in levels of solid "aerosol" particles in the atmosphere, rather than elevated CO2...."
"Shindell's research indicates that, ironically, much of the rise in polar temperature seen over the last few decades may have resulted from US and European restrictions on sulphur emissions. According to NASA:
Sulfates, which come primarily from the burning of coal and oil, scatter incoming solar radiation and have a net cooling effect on climate. Over the past three decades, the United States and European countries have passed a series of laws that have reduced sulfate emissions by 50 percent. While improving air quality and aiding public health, the result has been less atmospheric cooling from sulfates."
And, we'll take the opportunity to repeat the words of another rocket scientist we earlier quoted for you:
"...we know in the future these fuels (i.e., coal liquids - JtM) are going to become important to aviation. Petroleum is dwindling and you're going to need to make fuel out of coal, natural gas and biomass." — Dan Bulzan, NASA Glenn Research Center and AAFEX project manager
One reason we're submitting all these pro-coal NASA opinions to you, by the way, is because it was one NASA scientist, James Hansen, who first began to demonize coal as the Carbon Dioxide Devil that would roast us all in a cloud-shrouded Hades if we didn't stop using fossil fuels.
His learned colleagues, apparently, do not concur.
And, from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
aerosol levels from dust storms and volcanoes alone would account for as much as 70 per cent of the temperature rise seen in the Atlantic ocean during the past 26 years, leaving carbon simply nowhere.
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