Carbon recycling and reinvestment using thermochemical regeneration

#This application relates to devices, techniques and materials related to thermochemical regeneration of carbon dioxide into liquid fuel.

#The Industrial Revolution has produced the infrastructure, mechanized equipment, appliances, and communications systems to stimulate civilization's 7 billion people to burn more than one million years of fossil coal, oil, natural gas, and shale accumulations each year.

#Global-scale participation in the Industrial Revolution has produced interrelated problems of finite resource depletion and economic inflation; loss of productivity due to diseases that are initiated or exasperated by air, water, and soil pollution; lack of confidence to adopt the work ethic required for long-term achievements; and global warming that threatens to trigger more severe climate changes by releasing methane and other greenhouse gases from previously frozen soils, melting ice packs, and anaerobic processes in sediments on ocean floors, rivers, lakes, and riparian areas.

#FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram of a process for reinvesting, repurposing or recycling carbon dioxide harvested from waste generated by industrial processes to react with hydrogen from biomass waste dissociation.

#FIG. 2 is a process flow diagram of an exemplary process for generating oxidized fuel and hydrogen fuel by dissociating the H2-dense fuel mixture generated by reacting repurposed or recycled CO2 from industrial waste with hydrogen from biomass waste.

#FIG. 3A is a block diagram showing an exemplary system for repurposing or recycling CO2 harvested from industrial processes as waste to create renewable fuel by reacting with biomass produced hydrogen.

#Like reference symbols and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.

#Techniques, apparatus and systems are described for implementing thermochemical regeneration reactions in which carbon dioxide (CO2) is harvested from industrial processes and recycled or repurposed to generate renewable fuel, such as methanol fuel. Rather than waste carbon by taking carbon out of CO2, the described techniques repurpose or recycle CO2 in reactions with biomass waste produced hydrogen to generate renewable fuel.

#FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram of a process 100 for reinvesting, repurposing or recycling carbon dioxide harvested from waste generated by industrial processes to react with hydrogen from biomass waste dissociation. A system (e.g., system 400 below) harvests a carbon donor from industrial processes (110). The carbon donor, such as carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide used in the thermochemical regeneration described here can be harvested from readily available sources of CO2, such as from central power plants, coking, and calcining operations that burn hydrocarbons, breweries, and bakeries. The system obtains hydrogen from biomass waste dissociation (120). The harvested CO2 can be used to produce liquid feedstocks for production of chemicals and or fuels by reacting with the biomass waste produced hydrogen (130). For example, the methanol fuel produced in the described thermochemical regeneration of CO2 with H2 can be used to power gasoline and diesel engines adapted to burn methanol in a non-polluting manner. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,155,212 and 6,756,140 describe apparatus and techniques for adapting gasoline and diesel engines to burn methanol, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference.