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"The use of electrolytically produced syngas for producing renewable liquid fuels is discussed; an energy-storage cycle based on such liquid fuels is CO2-neutral, similar to hydrogen, and has the potential to be more efficient and easier to implement."
This is important, Mike. It reinforces some of our earlier dispatches regarding the actual employment of CO2, arising from coal use - whether the coal is used for power, chemicals or liquid fuels - as a raw material for more liquid fuels (and other useful things, actually).
The process described herein uses water and carbon dioxide, as we earlier suggested, and documented, to be possible, and practical, to make syngas, which you should by now know can be easily produced from coal. Syngas can then be transformed, via several established processes, into liquid fuel
It is, as an expert in this field just wrote us: "Game changing".
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Some questions have arisen about the actual costs of coal-to-liquid, and its economic viability.
We had earlier addressed that issue to some degree, and, rather than go back through our research, we submit the following quote, excerpted from the enclosed article link, by an expert at the National Research Center for Coal and Energy (NRCCE) at West Virginia University:
"Dr. Jerry Fletcher, an environmental economics professor at the NRCCE, said until recently, coal liquefaction hasn’t been a particular focus of U.S. Energy policy. But the situation is rapidly changing, according to Fletcher.
“Our estimate is that this (CoalTL - JtM) can produce fuel at $45 to $50 a barrel, that’s far less than the current prices in the seventies,” Fletcher said. That could ultimately mean lower gas prices for consumers."."
“Our estimate is that this (CoalTL - JtM) can produce fuel at $45 to $50 a barrel, that’s far less than the current prices in the seventies,” Fletcher said. That could ultimately mean lower gas prices for consumers."."
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An excerpt:
"... a handful of companies and scientists are ... finding ways to recycle CO2 and turn it back into gasoline and other transportation fuels."
USA Today. Shouldn't this be headline news in every newspaper in the State of West Virginia?
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Some pertinent excerpts:
"...carbon dioxide is today very much a renewable resource, unlike the fossil fuels and natural gas from the burning of which a proportion of atmospheric carbon dioxide is derived."
"Despite its reputation, there couldn't be a more environment friendly raw material for the chemical industry."
"A final reaction step, involving addition of an alkali, sodium hydroxide solution, then collects the intermediary activated carbon dioxide species as methanol. "Methanol was typically produced in over 90% yield (based on silane), as characterized by gas chromatography against an external standard," the researchers say. Methanol, they add, is an important starting material for many chemical syntheses and serves as an alternative fuel and as a raw material for the production of energy in methanol fuel cells (as we've previously documented,. coal-derived methanol's a pretty good liquid fuel in it's own right, along with being an excellent raw material for organic chemical, i.e., plastics, syntheses. - JtM)."
As we've said, as we've documented, carbon dioxide emissions, whether from coal-fired power plants or coal-to-liquid fuel conversion facilities, could be, should be, treated as a valuable raw material resource. We can capture it when and where it's emitted, and even from the atmosphere itself, and then use it profitably to manufacture some pretty useful stuff, such as more liquid fuel.
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We're submitting this, from the National Energy Technology Laboratory and the US Air Force, in further support of our thesis that processes exist which could enable the commercial employment of coal-to-liquid fuel technologiesnet environmental benefit. and thereby provide a
Some excerpts:
"The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) released a study that examines the feasibility of producing l00,000 barrels per day of jet fuel from coal and biomass."
"The coal-biomass-to-liquids (CBTL) facilities could also cut life-cycle emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary greenhouse gas, by 20% compared to conventional petroleum processes, said the DOE." (Emphasis added - JtM)
In other words, if we switched, now, from petroleum-based liquid fuels to ones made from the CoalTL+ biomass technologies we've documented, then we would reduce current CO2 emissions by 20%, at least, over our current, petroleum-based liquid fuel economy.
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