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#Post#: 904--------------------------------------------------
Hydrocarbons from SEAWATER (CARBON NEUTRAL) for less than $3 a
gallon!
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: April 8, 2014, 5:38 pm
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Mon Apr 07, 2014 at 05:00 PM PDT.
Navy lab makes gasoline from seawater, as low as $3 per gallon
:o ;D
by
Keith PickeringFollow .
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) announced today that
they have manufactured long-chain hydrocarbons -- that is
essentially gasoline -- entirely from seawater, and used the
fuel to power a flying model aircraft.
Using a patented electrochemical process, they have
simultaneously extracted dissolved CO2 ions and created hydrogen
gas from seawater. The resulting mixture of gases is then
reformed into long-chain hydrocarbons in a chemical reaction.
Last year I diaried about a 2010 study done by the NRL that
suggested a very similar process was feasible for manufacturing
jet fuel at sea, using excess electricity from a dedicated
nuclear-powered factory ship. The key to the process is the
realization that a liter of seawater contains 140 times as much
CO2 as a liter of air. In seawater, nearly all of the CO2 is
actually in the form of bicarbonate ions, which should make
extraction from water fairly straightforward because of the
electrical charge they carry. ;D
So it's a pleasant surprise to see that the Navy not only was
paying attention to their own research, but they have also moved
from theory to practice and have actually manufactured real fuel
using a similar process.
One big caveat: obviously, there is no free lunch, and this
process requires energy as input. But since it is entirely
feasible to use non-fossil energy sources to power the process,
the fuel created could be essentially fossil-free (carbon
neutral) gasoline. The oceans and atmosphere exchange CO2
readily in massive quantities, so taking it from one place is
functionally the same as taking it from the other.
The NRL press release contains this interesting quote:
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--- Quote ---
>
> Using an innovative and proprietary NRL electrolytic cation
exchange module (E-CEM), both dissolved and bound CO2 are
removed from seawater at 92 percent efficiency
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by re-equilibrating
carbonate and bicarbonate to CO2 and simultaneously producing
H2.
--- End Quote ---
Note that they're not specifically claiming the H2 was
electrolyzed by splitting water. That's because the bicarbonate
ion is formed when a CO2 molecule combines with a OH- (hydroxyl)
ion, forming the bicarbonate ion HCO3-. So there is at least the
theoretical possibility that the NRL process might run something
like this:
2(HCO3-) --> 2(CO2) + H2 + O2 + 2(e-)
I'm not enough of a chemist to know whether there is an energy
advantage in creating the hydrogen this way rather than by
electrolysis of water -- but I'm betting some Kossack out there
can figure it out and post in the comments. If there is, that
would be huge.
Cost
In the 2010 study, a cost analysis of a jet fuel-from-seawater
factory ship came in at about $6 per gallon. But about half the
capital cost was for the ship. so presumably a beached reactor
would have been able to manufacture fossil-free jet fuel for
roughly half that.
The NRL press release seems to buy into that estimate, putting
the cost of their new process at between $3 and $6 per gallon.
(The implication is that the total energy inputs are comparable
to those in the 2010 study, which assumed that all the required
H2 would be made from electrolysis.)
.
Originally posted to The Numerate Historian on Mon Apr 07, 2014
at 05:00 PM PDT.
Also republished by Kosowatt and Climate Change SOS.
HTML http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/07/1290380/-Navy-lab-makes-gasoline-from-seawater-as-low-as-3-per-gallon?detail=email
[move]Big Oil defending FOSSIL FUELER PUKES: EAT YOUR HEART
OUT![/move]
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#Post#: 6869--------------------------------------------------
Re: Hydcrocarbons from SEAWATER (CARBON NEUTRAL) for less than
$3 a gallon!
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: April 13, 2017, 8:21 pm
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Inconvenient Technology (for the Fossil Fuel Industry)
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[center]Device patented last year makes fuel from sea
water[/center]
RE,
You may want to check this out. This thing ACTUALLY WORKS in the
real world. All you need is a bunch of solar panels on a ship
(in this case, it's a US Navy aircraft carrier).
I'm sure the fossil fuel industry is NOT interested in this
being given to the public. It was patented by NREL.
Consequently, the government can keep us from using it FOREVER
(national security is one of those convenient excuses that makes
it legal to keep an invention out of public hands
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmp).
But the point is, IT WORKS. There is NO DISCUSSION as to whether
it works or not, even if somebody will probably will show up
here and poo poo it with some bullshit about the "superior"
ERoEI of fossil fuels. ::) That doesn't fly here because solar
energy is plentiful in the ocean AND the RATE of production on a
ship does not require refinery rapidity. This can END all use of
fuel requirements for ships now met by the petroleum industry.
:icon_mrgreen: So, I'm sure the fossil fuelers are going out of
their way to make sure the public never gets its hands on this.
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I've read about it and the excuse given for not going whole hog
with this is that it's sort of an energy quandary. The process
requires more energy than they get out of it from the fuel
(mostly for jet fuel but ANY hydrocarbon can be synthetically
produced with it). Since dissolved Carbonates from CO2 in sea
water are used to make the fuel, it's carbon neutral jet fuel
that is produced! The CATCH is that, if you use bunker fuel to
run a diesel generator that produces the electricity to make the
jet fuel, you use MORE bunker fuel that the jet fuel you get out
of it. The OBVIOUS solution, that they don't seem to want to
talk about for some reason ;), is getting the electricity from
the sun to run the Electrolytic Cation Exchange Module.
YES, the amount of electricity this process requires can EASILY
be met and exceeding by ship board solar power (ESPECIALLY on an
aircraft Carrier!).
And NO, they don't need to get it from the nuclear reactor, boys
and girls. ;D
So, if they GET the electricity (which does the work) from the
sun, it DOESN'T MATTER that it uses a lot of energy to make the
fuel.
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And, anyway, if they ran the energy numbers of transporting
fossil fuels to the ships (as long as Palloy, K-Dog or MKing
aren't doing that "math"
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmp),<br
/>it would ACTUALLY require a whole lot less energy to get that
fuel made on the ship
HTML http://dl3.glitter-graphics.net/pub/465/465823jzy0y15obs.gif<br
/>than a full cycle ERoEI of fossil fuel based fuels from the
well
to the refinery to the ship.
RE,
THIS s the final NAIL in the fossil fuel coffin.
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NOW the only recourse they have that can keep their polluting
business model going is in-your-face government corruption and
the deep sixing of this invention by cynically, fraudulently and
mendaciously claiming it can't be released (or even used on
military ships!) because of "national security".
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/>
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/>
IT'S NOW OVER for the "high energy density" makes fossil fuel
better" argument BECAUSE these are carbon neutral HYDROCARBON
FUELS of FAR SUPERIOR QUALITY. WHY? Because they DO NOT have
high sulfur or other crude oil contaminants to strip out in the
production. This is TOP GRADE JP-"place a number here for
different jet fuel grades" (e.g. JP-4). They can make TOP GRADE
GASOLINE (they made gasoline for a P-51 Mustang engine) from it
too!
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[center]NRL patents process for turning seawater into fuel
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[/center]
By Kevin McCaney
Jun 08, 2016
The Naval Research Laboratory has been working on finding a
nearly unlimited source of fuel—the sea—and now has the
validation of a patent to show for it.
NRL’s Material Science and Technology Division has received a
patent for its Electrolytic Cation Exchange Module (E-CEM),
which separates carbon dioxide and hydrogen from seawater and
then producing hydrocarbons to be used as fuel.
Tests of the process have to date been conducted on a small
scale—in April 2014, E-CEM was used to create fuel of a scale
model of the P-51 Mustang—but the process has the potential to
scale up to practical applications, NRL said in a release.
“A ship's ability to produce a significant fraction of the
battle group's fuel for operations at sea could reduce the mean
time between refueling, and increase the operational flexibility
and time on station,” said Cmdr. Felice DiMascio of the Naval
Reserve, one of five contributors and inventors named on the
patent. “Reducing the logistics tail on fuel delivery with the
potential to increase the Navy's energy security and
independence, with minimal impact on the environment, were key
factors in the development of this program.”
NRL currently is scaling up its process to create larger amounts
of fuel, although it’s still a long way from being able to
power, say, a boat or a plane. “Building on the success of the
first exchange module, we have scaled-up the carbon capture
process to improve efficiency and substantially increase
feedstock production,” said Dr. Heather Willauer, NRL research
chemist. “Using a scaled-up, second generation E-CEM prototype,
we will substantially increase CO2 and H2 production capable of
producing up to one gallon of fuel per day, an increase nearly
40 times greater than with the earlier generation E-CEM.”
Researchers at NRL's Marine Corrosion Facility in Key West,
Fla., are working to optimize the two processes involved in fuel
production—the recovery of hydrogen and CO2, and their synthesis
into hydrocarbons.
--- Quote ---
> NRL said it recently partnered with a commercial entity to
test its catalyst as it switches from its initial small plug
flow chemical reactor to a large-scale chemical reactor, and
hopes to have the two processes working at Key West by the end
of the year.
--- End Quote ---
In addition to DiMascio and Willauer, the other researchers
named on the patent are Dennis Hardy and Frederick Williams of
NRL and Kathleen Lewis of the Office of Naval Research.
About the Author
Kevin McCaney is a former editor of Defense Systems and GCN.
HTML https://defensesystems.com/articles/2016/06/08/nrl-e-cem-seawater-into-fuel.aspx
Agelbert NOTE: The "end of the year" was 4 months ago. Sure,
Trump's wrecking crew is going to squelch this thing on behalf
of the fossil fuel industry.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmp<br
/>BUT, ANYBODY (Hi Palloy ;)) that jumps on the low production
rate or some other bit of hair splitting, straw grasping
bullshit to claim "it won't work" or "it's not ready for prime
time" is making a baseless argument simply BECAUSE, if this did
not WORK, they could NEVER HAVE PATENTED IT!
THE INSTANT the fossil fuel industry learned of that patent,
THIS WAS THEIR REACTION.
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THEN they went into overdrive to kill this fantastic invention.
I hope your realize that this also represents a method of
keeping the oceans from destructive acidification, as well as
rapid CO2 sequestration if scaled up. :o ;D
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