Does anyone care that we, the citizens of the United States of America, could set ourselves free from our current economic and political enslavement to the alien, and in some cases hostile, nations of OPEC?
Does anyone care that we, the citizens of United States Coal Country, could free our economically essential Coal-fired power generation industries from the attacks being mounted against them by those, rightly or wrongly, genuinely or duplicitously, concerned about the emissions of Carbon Dioxide from those Coal-based producers of reliable, affordable and abundant electric power?
Clearly, as seen for just several examples in our reports of:
The USDOE Converts More Coal Exhaust CO2 into Gasoline | Research & Development | News; concerning: "US Patent Application 20140272734 - Electrochemical Device for Syngas and Liquid Fuels Production; 2014; Inventors: Robert Braun, William Becker, and Michael Penev, CO (USDOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Colorado School of Mines); Abstract:The invention relates to methods for creating high value liquid fuels such as gasoline, diesel, jet and alcohols using carbon dioxide and water as the starting raw materials"; and:
USDOE 2012 Coal Power Plant CO2 to Gasoline | Research & Development | News; concerning: "United States Patent 8,226,909 - Systems Including Catalysts in Porous Zeolite Materials Within a Reactor for Use In Synthesizing Hydrocarbons; 2012; Inventors: Harry Rollins, et. al., Idaho; Assignee: Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC, Idaho Falls; (The USDOE's Idaho National Laboratory is operated for the USDOE by their contractor, the above Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC. Abstract:Catalytic structures include a catalytic material disposed within a zeolite material. The catalytic material may be capable of catalyzing a formation of methanol fromcarbon monoxide and/or carbon dioxide,and the zeolite material may be capable of catalyzing a formation of hydrocarbon molecules from methanol. ... Government Interests: This invention was made with government support under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517 awarded by the United States Department of Energy. The government has certain rights in the invention. Claims: A system for synthesizing hydrocarbon molecules having two or more carbon atoms from hydrogen and ... carbon dioxide ... . Carbon dioxide gas (CO2) may be converted into liquid fuels such as, for example, hydrocarbon molecules of between about 5 carbon atoms and about 12 carbon atoms per molecule (e.g., gasoline) through multi-step reactions"; and:
US Navy 2014 CO2 to Jet Fuel | Research & Development | News; concerning: "United State Patent 8,658,554 - Catalytic Support for Use In Carbon Dioxide Hydrogenation Reactions; 2014; Inventors: Robert Dorner, Heather Willauer, and Dennis Hardy, IL, VA and MD; Assignee: The United States of America as Represented by the Secretary of the Navy; Abstract: A catalyst support which may be used to support various catalysts for use in reactions for hydrogenation of carbon dioxide ... . A method for making a catalyst support for use in carbon dioxide hydrogenation reactions and the formation of long chain hydrocarbons ... . One can envisage a process leading to jet fuel, where the needed carbon source is obtained by harvesting CO2 dissolved in the ocean";
our own United States Government not only knows all of that to be true, but, itself has developed, and owns, the technologies needed to make it all happen.
And, as seen in the document we bring to you herein, the knowledge that Carbon Dioxide can be used and consumed as the key raw material in the making of such seemingly-desirable stuff as Gasoline is starting now to make it's way down from labs and halls of government and into some of our centers of, perhaps more public, learning.
Comment follows excerpts from the initial and one other included link in this dispatch to:
"Carbon Dioxide Hydrogenation to Aromatic Hydrocarbons by Using an Iron/Iron Oxide Nanocatalyst
http://www.beilstein-journals.org/bjnano/single/articleFullText.htm?publicId=2190-4286-5-88
Hongwang Wang, et. al.
Kansas State University, Department(s) of Chemistry (and) Anatomy & Physiology, Analytical Imaging Laboratory (and) Department(s) of Biological and Agricultural Engineering (and) Chemical Engineering; Kansas, USA
June, 2014
Abstract: The quest for renewable and cleaner energy sources to meet the rapid population and economic growth is more urgent than ever before.
Being the most abundant carbon source in the atmosphere of Earth, CO2 can be used as an inexpensive C1 building block in the synthesis of aromatic fuels for internal combustion engines.
We designed a process capable of synthesizing benzene, toluene, xylenes ... from CO2 and H2 at modest temperatures (T = 380 to 540 C) employing Fe/Fe3O4 nanoparticles as catalyst.
(In other words, using Iron and Iron Oxide, they were able to convert Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen into "benzene, toluene, xylenes", aka "BTX":
www.cpchem.com/en-us/ehs/Documents/BTX HPG.pdf; "Benzene is primarily used for ethylbenzene to styrene and cumene to phenol production. The third largest use of benzene is in the production of cyclohexane, a nylon precursor. Toluene, the second largest aromatic in BTX/HPG, is used in refinery streams such as gasoline blending for its octane value. Xylenes may either be used in refinery streams for gasoline blending or further separated by isomers for chemical applications";
the components of which are used in "gasoline blending", thus, the title of this dispatch, but, which, as can be learned in:
are also used and consumed in the industrial synthesis of, among other things, polyurethane, polystyrene, polycarbonate, nylon and other polymers/plastics, wherein the Carbon Dioxide consumed in the original synthesis of the Benzene, Toluene and Xylene would be forever, and very productively, "sequestered".
Elemental, molecular Hydrogen is required herein for reaction with Carbon Dioxide, to synthesize BTX, and, as seen for only one example in our report of:
USDOE Renewable Hydrogen for Coal-to-Oil and CO2-to-Alcohol | Research & Development | News; concerning:
"United States Patent 9,011,651 - Apparatus and Method for the Electrolysis of Water; 2015; Inventor: Elias Greenbaum, Knoxville, TN; Assignee: UT-Battelle, LLC, Oak Ridge; (USDOE Oak Ridge National Laboratory); Abstract: An apparatus for the electrolytic splitting of water into hydrogen and/or oxygen ... A method for producing hydrogen and oxygen gases from the electrolytic splitting of water, the method comprising charging an electrolyzer with an aqueous electrolyte, and electrically powering said electrolyzer to produce hydrogen and oxygen gases ... . The method ... wherein said electrolyzer is powered by a renewable energy source (and) wherein said renewable energy source comprises solar energy (or) wind energy";
we're getting pretty good at extracting Hydrogen from the abundant Water, H2O, molecule in processes powered by one form and another of freely-available, though intermittent and unreliable, environmental and so-called "renewable" energy.)
The synthesis of the catalyst and the mechanism of CO2-hydrogenation will be discussed ... .
Being the most abundant carbon source in the atmosphere of Earth, CO2 can be used as a cheap and non-toxic C1 building block in many chemical processes. ... Iron-based heterogeneous catalysts have been intensively studied for CO2 hydrogenation reactions. Earlier research showed that bulk iron and iron oxides catalyze CO2 hydrogenation, producing mainly (substitute natural shale gas) methane.
Doping with promoters such as potassium, manganese and copper had significant effect on both the reactivity and selectivity of the iron-based catalysts. Higher olefins and aliphatic hydrocarbons, as well as improved CO2 conversion, were achieved.
Here, we report the selective formation of aromatic hydrocarbons from CO2 and H2 via a novel iron nanocatalyst.
It is well accepted that the formation of aliphatic hydrocarbons from iron catalyzed CO2 hydrogenation reactions proceeds through a 2-step reaction process. In the first step, there is conversion of CO2 to CO via the reverse water-gas shift reaction (RWGS). In the second step, hydrocarbon chains are built up through the
Fischer–Tropsch reaction.
(For some introduction to and explanation of the above "RWGS" and "Fischer-Tropsch" reactions, see, for a few examples, our reports of:
We have obtained evidence for the formation of aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, xylenes and mesitylene) from carbon dioxide and hydrogen mixtures at 1 atm on Fe/Fe3O4 nanocatalysts. A minor fraction of aliphatic hydrocarbons is formed as well.
This finding offers a viable pathway towards the direct and efficient formation of hydrocarbon mixtures that
are suitable as chemical starting materials and high-quality biofuels from CO2 and hydrogen.
(Note: Why they refer to the products made herein from Carbon Dioxide as "biofuels" is mystifying. It is, we think, inaccurate and inappropriate since there is no "biology" involved in the Kansas State University process reported on herein. It is all accomplished by physical chemistry, although organic chemicals, hydrocarbons, are formed. Use of the misleading term "biofuels" is regrettable.)
This technology is ... compatible with solar ... hydrogen technology and (can make) use of the existing distribution technology for gasoline".
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Our final excerpted statement is one key to the special value of what's being developed by Kansas State University:
We can use environmental energy to extract Hydrogen from water, then combine that Hydrogen with Carbon Dioxide, as recovered from whatever handy source, to make liquid hydrocarbon fuels, specifically Gasoline, which can then be distributed and used by "the existing" infrastructure, thus removing the need for massive investment in new fuel-handling infrastructure and vehicle fleets that are required by other, supposedly environmentally friendly, schemes.
Further, not only can we, according to Kansas State University, convert Carbon Dioxide, through benzene, toluene and xylene, "BTX", into Gasoline, but, the intermediate BTX produced from Carbon Dioxide would also lend itself to the further synthesis of a wide variety of plastics and polymers, such as, as reported in our supplemental references, polyurethane, polystyrene, polycarbonate, and nylon; in which polymers the Carbon Dioxide used and consumed in the original synthesis of the BTX, again as reported by Kansas State, would remain permanently, chemically, and productively "sequestered" - - - all with the creation of new industries and new jobs in Coal Country, while preserving all the jobs in Coal mining and Coal-fired power generation we already have and depend upon.
There will, we presume, be further disclosures of the technology for consuming CO2 in the synthesis of BTX, and thus Gasoline and other valuable products, eventually forthcoming from Kansas State University.
And, we'll get reports of those further developments and disclosures to you as soon as they become available to us. But, for now, keep in mind, that, as confirmed again herein, regardless of the public rhetoric concerning the Carbon Dioxide byproduct of our economically vital Coal-fired power generation industries, such Carbon Dioxide can be seen and treated as a valuable, an immensely valuable, raw material resource.
Carbon Dioxide can be used and consumed, again as confirmed herein by Kansas State University, in the efficient synthesis of the "BTX" product mix, which BTX is conventionally made from OPEC petroleum. And, that BTX can then be further used and consumed, as it is now in conventional petrochemical industries, for the synthesis of a wide array of plastics and polymers, and, of Gasoline.
