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Herein, from the one-time parent company, before some complicated disvestitures, of our own, local Consolidation Coal Company, we present information concerning improvements made in catalysts intended to assist in the conversion of Coal into liquid hydrocarbons.
It is all a refinement of the venerable Fischer-Tropsch process, which, via generation of synthesis gas and subsequent catalysis, converts Coal into those liquid hydrocarbons.
However, good ole' ConocoPhillips, as in a number of similar carbon conversion technologies invented by members of the Big Oil club, manages to avoid entirely any use of the dirty, four-letter word, "Coal"; insisting, without variance, that the needed "synthesis gas" can be obtained by processing Methane, or "natural gas".
Which ain't too bad, really, since we've known since award of the 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, to Paul Sabatier, that we can make Methane from Carbon Dioxide.
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As the very succinct Abstract of the United States Patent we enclose in this report puts it, disclosed herein is, simply, a "process for reacting carbon monoxide with water".
While that might not, at first glance, seem all that intriguing, the full Disclosure reveals that the products of such a "process" include "aliphatic and aromatic compounds boiling in the gasoline range".
And, should you wonder where we might obtain the needed Carbon Monoxide, we remind you of one recent report, available as:
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We have, in a few earlier reports, documented some of the achievements of the University of Utah in the development of Coal conversion technology.
Examples include:
Utah Makes Gasoline from Coal | Research & Development | News; wherein is detailed: "Production of Gasoline Components (from) Coal-derived Aromatic Hydrocarbons; University of Utah"; and:
Utah CoalTL Synergies | Research & Development | News; wherein multiple cited reports testify that University of Utah scientists have developed processes that enable the co-liquefaction of Coal with a variety of what would otherwise be environmentally-contaminating carbonaceous waste materials.
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United States Patent Application: 0100205856
In our recently-published report, posted as:
USDOE Recycles CO2 to Methanol with Solar Power | Research & Development | News; which concerns, primarily,United States Patent: 6066187 - "Solar Reduction of CO2", we not only made reference to additional, directly-related USDOE Carbon Dioxide technologies under development; but, as well, included an additional link,http://www.lanl.gov/news/newsbulletin/pdf/Green_Freedom_Overview.pdf; again documenting the USDOE's separate, but conceptually-related, development of their "Green Freedom"(TM) CO2-recycling technology, developed by other USDOE scientists at our Los Alamos, New Mexico, National Laboratory.
Herein, via the initial link in this dispatch, and following excerpts, we see that the Los Alamos scientists have applied for their own United States Patent, disclosing what we must presume to be the underlying technology for "Green Freedom"(TM).
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http://www.cuantaciencia.com/pdf/2009/CO2metano.pdf
As a foreword, we must warn that the title on the first page of the document we enclose herein, via the initial link and attached file, is in error.
The second page bears the correct title, as replicated in our excerpts.
In any case, we urge you to recall our many reports of the "tri-reforming", CO2-recycling, technology, which has been espoused by a number of Penn State University scientists, including Craig Grimes and the 2010 winner of the American Chemical Society's "Storch Award" for Fuel Chemistry, Chunsan Song.
In order to manufacture Methanol, and other liquid hydrocarbons, from Carbon Dioxide, Penn State has explained how Carbon Dioxide, recovered from whatever source, can be reacted with Methane and Steam, and made thereby to form a synthesis gas suitable for catalytic condensation into various hydrocarbons.
It is, apparently, similar to the technology NASA intends to utilize to manufacture rocket fuel on the planet Mars, out of Water recovered from ice on the Martian surface combined with Carbon Dioxide recovered from the Martian atmosphere.
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