coal2nuclear.com
coal2nuclear.com
Energy Independence means
producing all the oil we want within our own borders.
Here is how we can make Energy Independence happen:
(1) Wherever we are burning natural gas to make electricity, convert the generation to nuclear.
(2) Wherever we are burning natural gas to make heat, convert the heat to nuclear electric heat.
(3) Use our natural gas as feedstock for
SMDS (Shell)
synthetic gasoline and diesel instead of importing natural oil.
This could give us as much as 440 million gallons
We would have to add TRISO nuclear
reactors and oil synthesis units to many of our 130+ refineries.
By doing this, we would also have the option to completely sidestep the coming world "Peak Oil" crisis.
The CO2 "Clean" and "Dirty" sections will be consolidated into a single section
that includes the transition from "Dirty" to "Clean".
Nuclear's energy can be used to hydrogenate
biofuels to make them ultra-clean, carbon-neutral, and equal
to pumped oils.
Replacing pumped oil will be a massive task. A back-of-envelope number for making our 22 million barrel daily diet of oil out of algae comes to about 3.4 million tons tons or about 190 one mile-long trains of algae every day to about 500 algae-to-oil refineries (assuming algae weighs the same as oil). (Right) Gasoline distribution pipelines are used due to the sheer physical volumes involved.
Now, John Jones in the School of Engineering, at the University of Aberdeen, UK, suggests that the figures cited by Istvan Lakatos and Julianna Lakatos-Szabo for which they give no references grossly underestimates how much oil we have used already. Jones says that we have used at least 135 billion barrels of oil since 1870, the period during which J.D. Rockefeller established The Standard Oil Company and began drilling in earnest.
Oil Introduction, Introduction:
_____ What Are 'CO2 Clean' and 'CO2 Dirty' Nuclear Oils? _____
Synthetic oils
are already cheap enough to compete with pumped
oils
Switching from pumped crude oil (which makes about the same amount of CO2 as coal) to CO2-free synthetic vehicle fuels would call for three things: 1. Large amounts of heat from high temperature nuclear reactors, 2. Large amounts of hydrogen from high temperature nuclear reactors, 3. Massive amounts of biomass feedstock, probably best supplied by growing algae.
"Clean
Nuclear Oil" is the name I've given to carbon-neutral oil
manufactured from biomass feedstocks ranging from algae to
wood to sewage. Their availability is unlimited in theory but very limited
in today's marketplace. This is the major failing of all biomass
feedstocks. This is why we have to consider "Dirty Nuclear
Oil."
"Dirty
Nuclear Oil" is the name I've given to non carbon-neutral oil
manufactured from fossil feedstocks such as
(Right) Vast untapped amounts of these unconventional oil feedstock sources are still available. How much? All we can use. Proven and future pumpable oil make up only 5% of these feedstock deposits. To get an idea of how much fossil carbon is really left, recall that all the energy the entire United States uses each year adds up to about 100 quads. There's enough left to do 30 more Global Warmings. Peak Oil? If we use nuclear heat to convert it all into oil, it's ALL oil. LOL!
The processes
being talked about here are only possible because nuclear heat, when produced in the volumes
needed to make oil from coal, is dirt cheap.
Don't try this at home with fossil fuel.
All common energy oils are simple
hydro-carbons. Any old carbon atom that we can hang hydrogen atoms on will
do for making synthetic crude oil. The synthesizing company has the choice
of whether or not the carbon is carbon-neutral in origin. Energy oil hydrocarbon chain forming and re-forming are well developed
technologies at all large oil companies.
All of the above are carbon sources that can be converted into oils and gasolines by using heat, either fossil or TRISO nuclear, to drive catalytic hydrogenation conversion reactions that add those additional hydrogen atoms - obtained by nuclear-powered processes - to the feedstock's carbon chains. This is the 'Hydrogen' energy economy at its best.
It is the author's position that, if we are willing to forego the 'healing' of our atmosphere, nature could, instead, be used to 'clean up' after non-carbon neutral oils if they are used in small amounts over time and providing the burning of coal and natural gas are outlawed worldwide. Right: Notice that nature is cleaning up about 20 billion tons of Global Warming CO2 each year and oil is only producing about 11 billion tons of CO2 each year. Oil's free ride?
I am advocating using only TRISO nuclear heat - never burning - to minimize the production of Global Warming CO2 while maximizing the availability of the energy oils. Fossil carbon should never be burned simply to make stationary heat for electricity, heating, or chemical processes such as cement making. Fossil carbon is far too valuable as feedstock for fertilizers, medicines, plastics, and vehicle fuels.
Critically Important Book
Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy. Nobel laureate George Olah, PhD, Alain Goeppert, PhD, G.K. Surya Prakash, PhD. Intended for the general public, it's an easy-for-anyone-to-read book sorting all energy forms out and describing an energy future that's reasonable and attainable. One of the most important books ever written about our energy future. People involved with any aspect of energy or energy investing ignore it at their peril.
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-3527312757.html
Nuclear oils fall into much the same category as foods processed using nuclear electricity as their cooking energy.
1. Nuclear heat avoids burning the precious fossil fuels themselves to convert fossil fuels such as coal into clean oils.
2. Nuclear oil production creates little or no greenhouse gas.
3. Nuclear oils will make much less CO2 per year if burned over 600+ years as vehicle fuels only.
4. Nuclear oils made from biomass are CARBON-NEUTRAL and can be used safely in any quantity.
5. Nuclear oils can be "Made In The USA". (We are importing oil at the rate of $400,000 per minute.)
'Clean' oils are a simple strategy to free up nature completely to heal our damaged atmosphere.
'Dirty' oils are a simple "Fossil-Fuel Frugal" strategy to maximize the world's fossil energy reserves.
http://www.cns-snc.ca/events/CCEO/nuclearenergyindustry.pdf Canadian paper on using nuclear heat to extract oil from their Canadian tar sands.
You may not believe what I've written on this web site. You may believe them.
The following sections apply equally to both 'Clean' and
'Dirty' synthetic crude oils.
The only difference between clean oil
and dirty oil is where the carbon you toss into the
Oil Introduction, Part One:
How is dirty oil made from natural gas or coal?
Here are the two original German recipes, both intended for Germany's low-grade brown coal.
1. The Fischer-Tropsch Synthetic Oil Process.
It's important to remember that the Fischer-Tropsch synthetic oil process produces a spectrum of oils, not unlike crude oil itself, so F-T oil must always be further refined (using some more local nuclear heat) to produce specific oils like diesel, gasoline, or jet fuel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-Tropsch_process Wikipedia's Fischer-Tropsch description page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_fuel The synthetic fuel part.
http://www.fischer-tropsch.org Almost 300,000 pages of Coal-To-Liquids technology archives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalytic_converters#Three-way_catalytic_converters Dealing with the carbon monoxide produced by F-T reactions.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/coaltoliquids_ctl/index.html One of the best Coal-To-Liquids current article index pages.
Lignite or sub-bituminous coal is finely ground and mixed with heavy oil recycled from the process. Catalyst is typically added to the mixture. A number of catalysts have been developed over the years, including tungsten or molybdenum sulfides, tin or nickel oleate, and others.
The mixture is pumped into a reactor. The reaction occurs at between 400 to 500 °C and 20 to 70 MPa hydrogen pressure. The reaction produces heavy oils, middle oils, gasoline, and gases. The overall reaction can be summarized as follows:
nC + (n + 1)H2→CnH2n + 2
The different fractions can be passed to further processing (cracking, reforming) to output synthetic fuel of desirable quality. Overall, 97% of input carbon can be converted into synthetic fuel. The hydrogen required for the process can be also produced from coal by steam reforming.
Bergius process was used for production of synthetic gasoline in Germany during World War II (e.g., Hydrierwerke Pölitz, Police, Poland).
One variation of the Bergius process is currently used by company Sasol in South Africa.
Again, in different words:
The Bergius Process is a method of getting liquid hydrocarbons from lignite by hydrogenation. It was first developed by Frederick Bergius in 1921. Bergius process - The Process. Get hydrogen from coal with watergas reaction or partial oxidation of natural gas (Syngas). Grind lignite coal to the fineness of dust. Mix dust in heavy oil (from process) - 50/50 mixture is ok. Add a little iron oxide or nickel catalyst. The coal dust/oil mixture is pumpable to the reactor.
Bergius process - The Process
1. Get hydrogen from coal with watergas reaction or partial oxidation of natural
gas(Syngas).
2. Grind lignite coal to the fineness of dust. Mix dust in heavy oil (from
process) - 50/50 mixture is ok.
3. Add a little iron oxide or nickel catalyst. The coal dust/oil mixture is
pumpable to reactor when hot.
4. First reaction occurs when the mixture is at 400°C (750
5.Light oils are produced in the gas phase with vanadium(?) catalyst
hydrogenation in a second reactor at same pressure and temperature as the first
reactor.
This produces mainly gasoline level hydrocarbons of high octane level.
Bergius process - Future
There is some new method that can hydrogenate even anthracite coal, which uses a
boron(?) catalyst and mild temperature of 280°C.
Is there any method to hydrate woodcoal (or other biomass) to generate gasoline?
"GREEN GASOLINE"
A practical example of the Bergius process.
Carbon-neutral gasoline from biomass, water and nuclear heat.
(A chemical process, nC + (n +1)H2 → CnH2n+2, developed in 1913 by the German chemist Friedrich Bergius makes this possible as long as you have carbon, hydrogen, and abundant 1,000°F+ energy. The reaction occurs at between 700 and 900°F and 3,000 to 10,000 psi hydrogen pressure.
The reaction produces heavy oils, middle oils, gasoline and gasses depending on process variable choices. Feedstock frugal, overall 97% of input carbon can be converted into synthetic fuel. Both TRISO and TRIGA-like reactors are hot enough to power this reaction.)
1. As a plant grows, it's photosynthesis process causes CO2 to be taken from the air and combined with water to make cellulose fibers (a hydro-carbon).
2. The biomass is harvested, shredded, dried (using electric heat from a nuclear reactor).
3. A second ingredient, the gas, hydrogen, is taken from water, by using heat and electricity from that same reactor.
4. The "clean carbon" biomass and the hydrogen are then combined with heat and turned into a carbon vapor gas (mostly) methane (CH4) using electrical heat from that same nuclear reactor.
5. Then, in the presence of pressure and a catalyst, such as tin or nickel oleate, the methane is catalytically converted to produce a liquid synthetic crude oil - with the process producing lots of heat. This heat is removed by a cooling system powered by that same nuclear reactor.
6. The synthetic crude oil is then refined to extract liquid hydro-carbons called gasoline, diesel, etc., again using heat from that same nuclear reactor.
As you can tell, massive amounts of heat are needed to make this happen. Fortunately, nuclear heat costs less than coal and causes less life-cycle CO2 to happen than a wind turbine ( 9 to 21 g/kW-hr nuclear vs. 10 to 48 g/kW-hr wind vs. 950 to 1,300 g/kW-hr coal - World Nuclear Association ).
Gasoline averages 9 carbons with 20 hydrogens attached. Diesel averages 14 carbons with 30 hydrogens attached, and, as you can imagine, contains a little more energy than gasoline. Synthesized diesel yields are larger than gasoline yields when using carbon-neutral biomass feedstocks.
Synthetic gasoline in your car: When you start it up, the engine's burning process will attach two oxygens from the air to each carbon to make CO2. The burning also attaches one oxygen from the air to each pair of now-available hydrogens to make some water - H2O. Burning takes the hydrocarbon "gasoline" apart and re-assembles it into other chemicals - CO2 and H2O - along with producing heat.
Burning carbon-neutral (Green) gasoline. The CO2 your car engine will produce contains the carbon that growing biomass removed from the air a few years ago. When running on carbon-neutral gasoline, your car is not adding any new CO2 carbons to our environment that were not already circulating in it. That's what carbon-neutral means. Think about a forest fire - it's carbon neutral and our biosphere's plants and water are soon able to pack those CO2s away again to keep the amount of CO2 in the air the "trace" chemical - 300 parts per million - it must be to keep our planet capturing just the right amount of heat from the sun - not too hot, not too cold.
Coal, crude oil, and natural gas from the ground are from plants that grew and died - but did not decay because there was no oxygen ( Anoxic ) in the oceans then - during the Jurassic Age, the time of dinosaurs. Fossil fuel's carbon is being transported across time and is added to our air. Almost as if extra CO2 were being brought here from another planet. Our biosphere simply isn't coping with the large amounts of CO2 coming from our burning of hydro-carbons from both our time and Jurassic time. Please look at the CO2 balance diagram again.
If coal or natural gas were used to produce the heat used in our example, the CO2 produced by their burning would be enormous. Tragically, something like this is happening in Canada now. The Canadians burn natural gas (three oil barrels worth of heat from natural gas to make 5 barrels of liquid crude) to convert the tar in their tar sands into the 1 million barrels of liquid crude oil the United States buys from Canada each day.
Coming clean about "Green." Biomass has only about 1/4 the carbons per pound as diesel so all our cars would have to be extremely high mileage plug-ins kept charged up by nuclear electricity, the same energy we are already using to light, cook, heat and cool.
Since energy is the master resource,
if the world has sufficient clean
Oil Trade Group Says Climate Bill Would Raise Gas
Prices 77 Cents.
Bloomberg News (6/8, Whitten) reports that American Petroleum Institute
President Jack Gerard has estimated that "US House climate legislation may raise
the cost of gasoline by as much as 77 cents per gallon," based "on a
Congressional Budget Office study." The CBO study found that the legislation, if
passed, "would produce $845.6 billion in revenue and cost consumers $821.2
billion through 2019 in the form of free allowances for industry, tax breaks for
low income households and investment in cleaner forms of energy." Said Gerard,
"The $846 billion price tag on emission allowances - borne disproportionately by
oil consumers -- will drive up costs of producing and refining gasoline, diesel
and other fuel products while doing nothing to protect fuel consumers." Gerard
also estimated that the bill "would raise the cost of a gallon of jet fuel by up
to 83 cents per gallon and diesel fuel by 88 cents."
Exxon Mobil Chief: Transition From Oil-Based
Energy 100 Years Away.
Bloomberg News (5/28, Carroll) reports during Exxon Mobil's annual shareholders
meeting, the company's Chief Executive Officer, Rex Tillerson, said that "the
transition away from oil-derived fuels is probably 100 years away." Tillerson
told reporters that "petroleum-based fuels including gasoline and diesel, as
well as hydrocarbons such as coal and natural gas, will remain the dominant
sources of energy for factories, offices, homes and cars for decades because
there are no viable alternatives." Tillerson also warned that "consumers
probably face higher fuel prices if lawmakers impose greenhouse-gas rules that
inflate fuel-production costs." Said Tillerson, "The oil-gas-refining side of
the business received a very, very small amount of the allocations, which means
that sector will bear more of the costs more immediately. ... A carbon tax is
more efficient than a tax that's applied by way of a cap-and-trade mechanism."
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