CONVERTING CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2) INTO RENEWABLE ENERGY

Mr. Koen Van Looken Independent Engineer, R&D Renewable Energy and Recycling Founder Renewable Energy Thailand www.renewableenergythailand.com Contact Details: +66883373934 [email protected], Ban Dan Si Suk, Pho Tak District, Nong Khai Province Miss Amonratt Belhamzaoui, CO founder Renewable Energy Thailand Ban Dan Si Suk, Pho Tak District, Nong Khai Province Mr. Sittichai Singmahachai Head of Research, Innovation and Invention Nong Khai Technical College Institute of Vocational Education, Nong Khai 43000 Contact Details: +66817170788 www.nktc.ac.th

2014-08-21, Thailand

Introduction The need for energy in the Industrial and social development of a country will continue to grow. The use of fossil fuels has become widespread in the production of electricity and for powering automobiles and other transport systems. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the biggest contributing factor for the increase in green house gases in the atmosphere. Reducing the amount of CO2 released in to the atmosphere is essential if we are to save the world from environmental disaster. Several processes are already used to reduce or to prevent the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. Our process captures the CO2 and converts it in to Syngas (Synthesis gas) a fuel source widely used in industry. Our process uses a new type of reactor based on gasification technology. Our process does not use sophisticated equipment or expensive catalysts and so is cost effective. Our team does not longer treat CO2 as a problem, but as a valuable source of renewable energy. The challenge now is to implement our process.

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1. Overview The problem of green house gasses is well documented. The main green house gas is carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 is mainly produced by the combustion of carbonaceous fuels (fossil based fuels) and also from the fermentation processes used in the production of bio-gas and from waste fermentation. (Bio gas consists mainly of Methane and carbon dioxide 50/50%). CO2 is responsible for about 80 percent of global warming, this has increased by about 30 percent since the industrial revolution. It had been estimated that because of increased global warming the earth’s temperature of will rise by 1-3 degrees centigrade within a few decades. Burning natural gas, the cleanest of the fossil fuels, instead of other fossil fuels also emits large amounts of carbon dioxide, in addition to carbon monoxide, and other reactive hydrocarbons. It is easy to see that replacing oil use and coal use by natural gas for power generation may not the best option to appreciably reduce CO2 emissions. The combustion characteristics of the following fuels will clearly demonstrate the large amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere by burning. The data used is provided by the International Energy Agency (IEA) Petrol (Gasoline): 1 litre of Petrol produces 2.22 kg of CO2. Diesel 1 litre of Diesel produces 2.63 kg of CO2. LPG GPL: 1 kg of LPG GPL produces 3 kg of CO2. Methane: 1 kg of Methane produces 2.75 kg of CO2. Methanol: 1 kg of Methanol produces 1.38 kg of CO2. Ethanol: 1 litre of Ethanol produces 1.51 kg of CO2 Biodiesel 1 litre of Biodiesel produces 2.524 kg of CO2.

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The following numbers represent that country’s average CO2 emissions based on their electric production system (Nuclear, coal, gas, solar). Average CO2 emission for the production of 1 kWh electric power (g/KWhel) Germany: United States: Australia: China: India: Thailand: Switzerland: Sweden:

460 g/KWhel 522 g/KWhel 840 g/KWhel 766 g/KWhel 912 g/KWhel 512 g/KWhel 27 g/KWhel 29 g/KWhel

Based on these numbers it is obvious that there is enormous potential for improvement and a huge opportunity for the our newly developed process to convert CO2 into renewable energy. It is already clearly understood that generating so much CO2, is unsustainable for the earth. Existing technologies must be fully implemented along with newly developed technologies which must be encouraged and subsidized where necessary.

2. CURRENT METHODS FOR THE DISPOSAL OF CARBON DIOXIDE Carbon dioxide sequestration. Options available for storage of carbon dioxide are geological formations like old oil fields, coal formations, saline water aquifers and deep oceans. Burying vast amount of CO2 waste deep in the ground and sequestration in coal mines is feared to cause earth quakes, asphyxiation and ground water contamination. Some chemists believe that simply trapping and burying CO2 produced by power stations and from manufacturing processes is a waste of potentially useful resource. Oil companies make use of captured CO2 to pump out oils from the oil fields and hard to reach oil reserves. CO2 is injected under high pressure to improve oil recovery from oil wells and enhanced coal bed methane recovery from coal seams. In the coal bed methane recovery process CO2 displaces absorbed methane from the pores of the coal beds so that carbon dioxide is stored and the released methane can be used as a clean gaseous fuel. Even in this method the methane when used as a fuel itself produces CO2 requiring disposal. It would seem timely to find ways to fulfil the potential of CO2 which is otherwise a wasted resource. Nature of course solves the problem of CO2 capture in the process of photosynthesis by directly absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere, in the process sunlight releases oxygen as a by product. In this sense CO2 is very much a renewable resource however chemists have found that the C-O bond does not break easily, at least without the expenditure of huge amounts of energy which would defeat the object of recycling the gas in the first place. Per capita power consumption is said to be a measure of the economic development of a country. Increasing power production and consumption can not be avoided. This situation has forced us to go in search of alternative sources of energy which must be cost effective, readily available and without leading to further atmospheric pollution and be eco friendly.

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3. ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF ENERGY Any fuel dependant power generation results in the emission of CO2 because fuels are combustible organic substances based on carbon (with the exception of hydrogen when used as a fuel or as a fuel in a nuclear reactor). Hydrogen is a very clean fuel in all senses of the term. However hydrogen does not exist free in nature. It has to be generated by the decomposition of the compound containing the hydrogen for example in water. To carryout this process energy has to be expended and this may not be cost effective. Further the use of hydrogen has many disadvantages, although a lot of research is ongoing for the utilization of hydrogen for power generation. Nature has provides alternative sources of freely available energy such as solar power, wind power and tidal power. Utilization of these for power generation does not lead to environmental pollution and are considered to be eco-friendly. However the exploitation of these energy sources has some disadvantages. The installation costs involved in trapping and converting the energy into electricity is high; and is generally not cost effective and is inefficient. They are dependant on several factors; geographical location, climatic conditions and available space for installing the devices. It’s utility is limited and at present this energy is not currently being fully exploited. In order to circumvent these difficulties and to reduce the amount of CO2 released to the atmosphere a suitable source of renewable energy involving trapping CO2 and converting it to Syngas producer gas is proposed. The chemical, metallurgical industries and thermal plants make use of the conventional fossil fuels as a source of energy. All of them inevitably release CO2 in the flue gas. Instead of releasing CO2 into the atmosphere it is trapped and utilized in the preparation of other useful organic compounds. Some other methods are already in use.

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4. OTHER METHODS FOR THE UTILIZATION OF CARBON DIOXIDE Methanol produced from carbon dioxide dissolved in water by electrolysis followed by hydrogenation of the carbon monoxide so formed. Producing methanol by the reductive conversion of any available source of CO2 by electrochemical reduction of the CO2 in a divided electrochemical cell; a resulting mixture can be used to produce methanol. The CO and H2 produced at the cathode is then reacted over Cu and Ni based catalysts to produce high yields of methanol (CH3OH). Hydrogenation. This method is an efficient method for the utilization of CO2 the technology used is a more sophisticated. The CO2 used should be as pure as possible for the method of conversion to be effective. The production of methanol from reactions between CO2+ H2 and CO + H2 over Platinum catalysts supported on Nb2O5, ZrO2, MgO, SiO2 and TiO2. This method is as effective as the previous method, but the disadvantage is that the CO2 used should be very pure without containing any gaseous or particulate impurities. In such situation obtaining pure CO2 from flue gases plays a major role. The Institute of Bio-energy and Nanotechnology in Singapore has developed a novel reaction through which CO2 is effectively converted into MeOH under milder conditions. This takes place in the presence of N-Heterocyclic Carbene catalyst and the silane as a reducing agent. The final step involves the addition of NaOH solution, when activated CO2 is converted to methanol. The big advantage of this organic approach to CO2 conversion is that unlike other processes it neatly sidesteps the need for expensive, toxic and precious catalysts. Many methods have been researched. One of the major drawbacks is the deactivation of the catalysts used due to the formation of soot on the catalyst during the reaction. The other major problem encountered is the reformation of CH4 from CO and H2. In all the above methods: a) Either pure and free CO2 is required b) The catalyst employed is sensitive to impurities c) The catalyst is sensitive to oxygen d) The catalyst is sensitive to moisture e) The catalysts are expensive f) The technology is not cost effective g) New reactors/plants are needed.

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5. OUR NEW PROCESS FOR HANDLING CARBON DIOXIDE When fossil fuels are burnt, CO2 is released but also oxygen is depleted resulting in: a) Deforestation b).Increase in number of power plants and industries using fossil fuels c) Increase in the number of vehicles using fuels based on mineral oils d) Burning of garbage and bio-wastes. In our process there is no isolation of CO2, no compression, no transportation and no sequestration. This equates to considerable savings in energy. It will also generate revenue since by using our technology, the amount of petroleum based fuel needed can be reduced. Our technology is commercially attractive. This will not only recycle CO2 but also will result in a more energy efficient way to generate energy and also generate a positive effect on the Carbon Credits scale. Our technology uses a thermo-chemical process that will convert CO2 to Syngas – Producer gas and facilitate the production of gasoline or useful organic compounds. The base line of our process is: 1) CO2 emitted by power plants, industry and factories can be used directly, eliminating the need for clean CO2. 2).Transformation of large quantities of CO2 to Syngas – Producer gas can be done, thus making our process a viable one for large scale industrial applications. With a forecast of 43 billion tons per annum of CO2 emissions by 2030, there is a plentiful supply of the raw material CO2 available to produce renewable liquid fuels for global consumption. Not only does CO2 recycling mitigate CO2 emission and curb demand for imported oil, but it also provides an efficient approach to produce renewable fuels. Our process can be easily adopted by chemical, metallurgical industries and thermal power plants which make use of the fossil fuels for power generation. This method does not involve electrolysis or the use of any expensive catalysts. From the Syngas formed by the above method, other useful organic compounds like methanol or long chain hydrocarbons can be prepared (by the Bergius process or the Fischer Troph process) or the Hydrogen and Carbon monoxide can be liquified and stored for future use.

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6. CONCLUSION Formation of CO2 and its increase in the atmosphere cannot be prevented in the near future since the use of fossil fuels continues to be the main source of energy. This leads to global warming which is the causative factor for drastic climatic changes and environmental disasters. Just removal of CO2 from the atmosphere and dumping it deep in the sea or in coal mines is not an attractive method. In this situation the trapping of CO2 and converting it to some useful organic compounds like fuel gas, gasoline, methanol and so on is widely accepted to be a the best way forward. Our process removes the CO2 from the atmosphere and recycles the CO2 into a renewable source of energy. The process we propose uses the Carbon Dioxide Converter to reduce CO2 to Syngas. This method has the following advantages: a) By adopting our process we can avoid the increase in the CO2 content in the atmosphere and even decrease it. b) The amount of fossil fuel required for the industry is reduced by the formation of fuel gas by recycling the CO2. c) The rate of oxygen depletion in the atmosphere is also reduced by our process. d) Our process is cost effective and does not involve the use of expensive catalysts. e) Our process produces so called Syngas (Synthesis Gas carbon monoxide and hydrogen) and also after purification several organic compounds like methanol and fuels like gasoline can be produced.

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7. REFERENCES (1) S.K Puri and Gurdeep Singh, “Mitigation of Green House Gas Emissions Through Carbon Dioxide Sequestration “, Proceedings of the National Seminar on Environmental Engineering, NSEEME-2004,19-20, March 2004. (2) George A. Olah G.K. Surya Prakash, “Electrolysis of Carbon Dioxide in Aqueous Media to Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen for production of Methanol,”.US patent application 12/171,904 , patent number: 7704369,winston & strawn LLP, Patent Department,Washington DC, US. (3) Johanna Ivy, “Summary of Electrolytic Hydrogen,” Golden, Colo. : National Renewable Energy Laboratory, [2004] 24 p.: digital, PDF file. (4) Kriston P. Brooks, Jianli Hu, Huayang Zhu and Robert J. Kee, “Methanation of carbon dioxide by hydrogen reduction using the Sabatier process in microchannel reactors“, Chemical Engineering Science, Volume 62, Issue 4, February 2007, Pages 1161-1170 (5) Bradford M.C.J; Vannice,"CO2 reforming of CH4," Cat.Rev.Sci.Eng, 41 (1999) 1. (6) S.N.Riduan,Y.Zhang,J.Y.Ying, "Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Methanol with Silanes Over N-Heterocyclic Carbene Catalysts," Angewandte Chemie International Edition,48(2009) 3322-3325. Highlighted by NATURE: 458(2009)1080;C & E News: 87 (2009) 39 (7) www.iea.org

8. Special thanks to our researchers Ben  Grummels,  Dip  App  Sc  (Chem),  Web  Marketing  Consultant   Martin  Tunley,  Internet  researcher,  copy  writer  

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