CO2 Recycling
CO2 is valuable, don't waste it, recycle it!
The populations of undeveloped countries want the economic prosperity and
standard of living that Americans enjoy today, and that requires energy.
In the next 100 years worldwide demand for energy will increase tenfold,
as billions of “third world” consumers aquire access to modern
products and services. An ever expanding modern world will
continue to need an abundant source of hydrocarbons – A
sustainable source of hydrocarbons will always be needed.
By recycling CO2, America would be building the technology now for a sustainable
hydrocarbon future.
The idea of recycling CO2 to make synthetic
fuels is not without controversy.
Those who oppose the recycling of CO2 argue that it would take more
energy to recycle the CO2 than would be produced when the synthetic
fuel is
used. Well, of course! That is called conservation of energy. You can
not get more energy out of the synthetic fuels than you put into
it. And
because the process would be less than 100% efficient, you will most
certainly get less energy out than you put in.
Synthetic liquid hydrocarbon fuel will serve as a convenient carrier of
high-density energy. The energy input into the recycling process would
be non-carbon energy such as that produced by solar, wind or nuclear energy.
The commercial value of the original energy would increase because,
as a liquid hydrocarbon, it could be easily stored and transported.
The increased value of the new form of energy would pay for the energy
expended in
the
process of recycling the CO2.
If the original
source of energy does not itself produce CO2, then what does it matter
if more energy is
used in recycling CO2, than is returned
by the synthetic fuels produced by recycling? Renewable energy is
lost anyway, if not used — but it is a lost opportunity, not a
lost resource — that is why we call it renewable!
CO2 can be recycled back into valuable hydrocarbon products such as
synthetic alcohol and diesel
fuel.
Recycling CO2 is advocated by George
A. Olah, professor of chemistry and director of the Loker Hydrocarbon
Research Institute at the University of Southern California, and winner
of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on carbocation and
hydrocarbon chemistry. Hydrocarbons
for the 21st Century - The work of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute.
Published in Chemical
and Engineering News, Dr. Olah said:
"From plant life over the ages, new fossil
fuels can be formed. The process is so slow, however, that within
our human life span we do not have time for nature to replenish what
we are rapidly using up. A challenging new approach that we are pursuing
is to reverse the process and produce hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide
and water via methanol, thus chemically recycling carbon dioxide.
In the laboratory, we already know how to do this, and progress is
being made toward bringing about the feasibility of such an approach.
The limiting factor is the energy needed for generating hydrogen from
water. Using alternative energy sources–but first of all atomic
energy, albeit improved and made safer–will eventually give
us needed energy."
"Much is said these days about a hydrogen
economy, emphasizing hydrogen as the clean, inexhaustible fuel
of the future. However, the safe handling and dispensing of volatile
hydrogen–for which no infrastructure exists–is difficult
and costly."
"I believe a much preferable way of storing
hydrogen is in the form of methyl alcohol (methanol economy).
Methanol is a convenient liquid that can be produced by reduction
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It can be catalytically converted
into ethylene and propylene and through them to higher hydrocarbons.
This can provide an inexhaustible source of hydrocarbon products and
fuels, which are now obtained from oil and gas. Furthermore, in recent
years, with colleagues at California Institute of Technology and the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, we have also developed a new, direct methanol
fuel cell that produces electric power without the need of hydrogen.
Thus, methanol is both a fuel and a source of hydrocarbons. By recycling
excess CO2 into methanol instead of just storing or sequestering it,
we can also mitigate global warming. It is to this effect that a major
research effort, with my colleagues associated with the Loker Hydrocarbon
Research Institute at the University of Southern California, is directed."
Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy
This book discusses a new approach
based on what we call the “Methanol Economy”.
The production of methanol directly from still-available fossil
fuel sources,
and the recycling of carbon dioxide via hydrogenative reductions,
are—we believe—feasible and convenient
ways to store energy generated from all possible
sources including, alternative energy sources (solar, hydro, wind,
geothermal, etc.) and atomic energy. In the short
term, new efficient production of methanol not only
from still-available natural gas resources (without going
through the syn-gas route) but also by the hydrogenative conversion
of
carbon dioxide
from industrial exhausts, offer feasible new routes. In
the long term, recycling of carbon dioxide captured from
the air itself will be possible. Air, in contrast
to oil and gas resources, is available to everybody on Earth,
and
its CO2 content represent an inexhaustible recyclable
carbon resource. Methanol produced from this CO2
(using any energy source to produce the required hydrogen
from water), is an excellent fuel on its own for internal combustion
engines or fuel cells of the future. It can be also
readily converted, via its dehydration to ethylene
and
propylene, into synthetic hydrocarbons and their products. Consequently,
it can free mankind’s dependence on our diminishing oil
and natural gas (even coal) resources.
—
Nobel
Laureate George
Olah
Recycling
CO2 into fuel —The conversion of CO2 to fuel is not a dream,
but an effective possibility which requires further research, said
research Professor Gabriele Centi from the University of Messina in Italy.
Results from this project, once refined, could help turn back the clock,
and remove CO2 from the atmosphere, turning it into useful fuel. One problem
with CO2 is that it is a highly stable gas. Once produced, the chemical
bonds in CO2 are extremely difficult to break. The new technique enables
special catalysts to break those chemical bonds and create long-chain carbon
molecules, which can be easily converted into fuels.
The research can be
rightly called cutting-edge. Traditionally, the energy needed to break
those chemical bonds, even with catalysts, is
very high. The researchers used a two-stage approach. First, sunlight
was used with a titanium catalyst to split water molecules, releasing
free 'protons' (hydrogen ions), electrons and oxygen gas. In the second
stage, those free electrons are used to reduce the CO2 and bind the carbon
atoms together using platinum and palladium catalysts inside carbon nanotubes.
Staggeringly,
the research is currently efficient enough to produce molecules of eight or nine
long hydrocarbon chains at one per cent efficiency
at room temperature. This is already two to three times greater efficiency
than any other industrial process. If coupled with 'green' technologies,
such as the massive heat generated in solar thermal energy towers, then
far greater efficiencies can be achieved.
In a presentation to the American
Chemical Society in San Francisco on September 13, 2006, Professor Centi said
that
viable production of hydrocarbon chains from CO2 could be attained within
a decade.
For more information See: Electrocatalytic Gas-Phase Conversion of CO2
in Confined Catalysts
Artificial Photosynthesis, powered by electricity from nuclear, solar,
wind or any source of electric power—can reduce carbon dioxide molecules
to carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide can then be recombined with hydrogen
molecules taken from water to produce synthetic hydrocarbon fuels.
Fuels from
Sunlight — U.S. Department of Energy, July
22, 2010
“After nearly 3 billion years of evolution, nature can effectively convert
sunlight into energy-rich chemical fuels using the abundant feedstocks of water
and carbon dioxide. All fuels used today to power vehicles and create electricity,
whether from fossil or biomass resources, are ultimately derived from photosynthesis...
plants and photosynthetic microbes were not designed to meet human energy needs
- much of the energy captured from the sun is necessarily devoted to the life
processes of the plants. Imagine the potential energy benefits if we could generate
fuels directly from sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water in a manner analogous
to the natural system, but without the need to maintain life processes. The impact
of replacing fossil fuels with fuels generated directly by sunlight would be
immediate and revolutionary.”
Turning
sunlight into liquid fuels — Using the energy of
sunlight to produce pure hydrogen and oxygen from water molecules without
electrolysis.
Team
to chemically transform carbon dioxide into carbon-neutral liquid fuels —Using
concentrated solar energy to reverse combustion, a research team from
Sandia National Laboratories is building a prototype
device intended to chemically “reenergize” carbon dioxide
into carbon monoxide using concentrated solar power. The carbon monoxide
could then be used to produce hydrogen [Water
gas shift reaction] or
serve as a building block to synthesize a liquid combustible fuel, such
as
methanol or even gasoline,
diesel
and jet fuel.
Nuclear Hydrogen for Production of Liquid Hydrocarbon Transport
Fuels:
Hydrocarbon liquid fuels that have no greenhouse impacts can
be produced if the carbon source for the manufacture of the liquid
fuels is carbon recycled from the atmosphere (via biomass collection
or direct
removal from air). With nuclear hydrogen production, this
conversion process becomes:
Recycle
carbon + Water + Nuclear energy —> Liquid fuels (No greenhouse)
—by Charles
Forsberg Oak Ridge National Laboratory
*Nuclear Hydrogen Production Process Design and Economics
Capturing Carbon Dioxide Directly from the Air
Artificial Trees:
Technology is available for developing large “artificial trees” to
remove carbon dioxide directly from air. These artificial trees
can be designed to remove a volume of CO2 equal to the total tailpipe
CO2 emissions of a given region, resulting in a zero net balance of CO2
in the atmosphere; effectively making the hydrocarbon burning cars and
trucks in the region equal to zero-emissions vehicles.
The CO2 could be “harvested” from the artificial trees and
recycled back into synthetic alcohol or synthetic diesel fuel.
Synthetic fuels made from recycled CO2 would be renewable
because the CO2 tailpipe emissions from hydrocarbon burning engines would
be drawn out of the atmosphere by artificial trees and chemically
recycled
back into synthetic fuels.
In response to the question, is the idea of capturing carbon dioxide
from the air really more than science fiction? Dr. Hans Ziock, of
Los Alamos National Laboratory, answered:
“The idea is far more than science fiction,
although certainly a fair distance from actual implementation. The removal
of CO2 from air is fairly easy, as flowing air through a calcium hydroxide,
or other basic solution will show. That is simple chemistry. Although
the needed scale is large, the land area required is a couple of orders
of magnitude smaller than that required for wind energy, solar energy,
and more than three orders of magnitude smaller than the area required
for biomass. The reason for this is that there is a lot of energy in
a small amount of carbon, where as solar and wind energy are very diffuse,
and biomass has a huge inefficiency in converting the diffuse sunlight
energy into fixed carbon.”
“One should be careful to note that removal of CO2 from the atmosphere
does NOT generate any energy, and in fact consumes energy. However,
its removal allows one to generate energy from carbon fuels elsewhere
which more than compensates for the energy consumed in the process.
Our back of the envelope calculations show that we could remove
the CO2 generated from a gallon of gasoline for less than 25 cents.”
“The process would be aimed at the transportation sector and other
small diffuse emitters of CO2. It would be foolish to do this for a
power plant where one already has a fairly concentrated stream of CO2.”
“The concept would be a solution for the CO2 emissions from the
transportation sector, which, if implemented, would eliminate the
need
for the huge expense of completely replacing the existing fuel infrastructure
for the transportation sector, and side step the entire issue of finding
a cost and energy efficient means of producing, transporting, and storing
hydrogen both to/at the distribution centers and then in the vehicles.
It of course also makes the CO2 collection completely independent of
how or where the CO2 is emitted, as all that is needed is that the
net
balance of atmospheric CO2 is zero.”
“A more aggressive implementation of this technology
would allow civilization to begin drawing down atmospheric CO2 levels
back to where they were before the industrial revolution, not simply
stop the increase.”
Dr.
Klaus Lackner, Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth
and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University along with Dr.
Hans Ziock of Los Alamos National
Laboratory and Dr. Patrick Grimes,
an internationally recognized expert in chemical processes, have together
presented a brief white paper titled, The
Case for Carbon Dioxide Extraction from Air. First published in SourceBook
– The Energy Industry’s Journal of Issues, 1999. 57(9): p.
6-10.
These three talented scientists have also presented an in-depth white
paper titled, Capturing
Carbon Dioxide from Air, which describes the concept in detail. The
PDF document is 15 pages and can be downloaded from the DOE National Energy
Technology Laboratory (NETL) web site.
Capturing
Carbon: Expert Q&A — NOVA scienceNOW - July 2008
Recent development at Los Alamos National Laboratory:
Synthetic
Fuel Concept to Steal CO2 From Air — Green
Freedom™ for
carbon-neutral, sulfur-free fuel and chemical production. Los
Alamos National Laboratory has developed a low-risk, transformational
concept,
called Green Freedom™, for large-scale production of carbon-neutral,
sulfur-free fuels and organic chemicals from air and water. At the heart
of the technology is a new process for extracting carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere and making it available for fuel production using a new
form of electrochemical separation. By integrating this electrochemical
process with existing technology, researchers have developed a new, practical
approach to producing fuels and organic chemicals that permits continued
use of existing industrial and transportation infrastructure. Fuel production
is driven by carbon-neutral power. More...
Scientists
Would Turn Greenhouse Gas Into Gasoline —If two scientists
at Los Alamos National Laboratory are correct, people will still be driving
gasoline-powered cars 50 years from now, churning out heat-trapping carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere — and yet that carbon dioxide will
not contribute to global warming.
The scientists, F. Jeffrey Martin
and William L. Kubic Jr., are proposing a concept, which they have patriotically
named Green Freedom™, for removing
carbon dioxide from the air and turning it back into gasoline.
The
idea is simple. Air would be blown over a liquid solution of potassium
carbonate, which would absorb the carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide
would then be extracted and subjected to chemical reactions that would
turn it into fuel: methanol, gasoline or jet fuel.
This process could transform carbon dioxide from
an unwanted, climate-changing pollutant into a vast resource for renewable fuels.
The closed cycle — equal amounts of carbon dioxide emitted and removed — would
mean that cars, trucks and airplanes using the synthetic fuels would no longer
be contributing to global warming. More...
Global Research Technologies, LLC —
For the first time, carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles on the streets of Bangkok can be removed from the atmosphere by capture devices located anywhere in the world. That's just one example of the impact that GRT-developed CO2 capture systems will have worldwide.
First Successful Demonstration
of Carbon Dioxide Air Capture April 25, 2007 —
Global Research Technologies, LLC (GRT), a technology research and development
company, and Klaus Lackner from Columbia University have achieved the successful
demonstration of a bold new technology to capture carbon
from the air. The "air extraction" prototype has successfully demonstrated that indeed carbon dioxide (CO2)
can be captured from the atmosphere. This is GRT's first step toward a commercially
viable air capture device.
GRT's Future Commercial Air-Capture Products Will Address CO2 Market Needs
in Sectors Ranging From Agriculture to Energy
Global Research Technologies, LLC (GRT) is continuing to refine ACCESS™, its air-capture technology product named
for the initials in the phrase "Atmospheric Carbon CapturE SystemS." GRT's proof-of-concept successes have established
that the firm is on its way to designing and building patented air-capture technology that will eventually enable the
removal of millions of tons of CO2 a day from the earth's atmosphere. GRT is also refining its long-term business model
and working to integrate large numbers of future ACCESS units into markets that produce and use CO2.
ACCESS units can be located anywhere — far from CO2-emitting smokestacks and far from populated and scenic areas.
Yet if desired, they can also be located adjacent to end-use markets. Full-scale models of future commercial ACCESS
units will be approximately the size of shipping containers. Each will be able to remove a ton of CO2 a day.
Smaller-scale versions of ACCESS units are envisioned for use by end-users requiring less CO2 captured for their
processes or products.
Klaus Lackner, Ph.D., one of the visionaries behind the GRT system's design and a member in the company, explained,
"Carbon-based fuels can be used with minimal climate consequences provided the CO2 they produce when combusted is
removed from the atmosphere. GRT's ACCESS will make it possible to rely on fossil fuels in the transportation sectors
without increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere." Professor Lackner is also the Chair of the Department of Earth
and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University.
August 11, 2007 — Industrial Technology News
Online Articles:
Synthetic trees could purify air
Plan to build emissions scrubber
Information Links:
Carbon Dioxide as a Feedstock
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Corporation
UCSB Artificial Photosynthesis Research
Artificial Photosynthesis - U.S. Department of Energy
Recommeded YouTube video:
Synthetic Fuels produced from recycled CO2 using nuclear energy
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