Reactor uses sunlight to make hydrocarbon fuel

January 12, 2011

Researchers have developed a reactor that can rapidly produce fuel from sunlight, using carbon dioxide and water, plus a compound called ceric oxide.

This process is akin to the way plants grow, using energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide into sugar-based polymers and aromatics.

Plants grow by using energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide into sugar-based polymers and aromatics.

These compounds in turn can be stripped of their oxygen, either through thousands of years of underground degradation to yield fossil fuels, or through a rather more rapid process of dissolution, fermentation and hydrogenation to yield biofuels.

Yet right now, converting sunlight into a chemical fuel isn’t the most effective process, and practical generation of solar fuels remains a long way off.

Researchers have recently been exploring alternative possibilities of using sunlight to turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuel without relying on the intervening steps of plant growth and breakdown.

William Chueh and colleagues now demonstrate one possible reactor design, in which concentrated sunlight heats ceric oxide—an oxide of the rare earth metal cerium—to a high enough temperature to shake loose some oxygen from its lattice.

The material then readily strips oxygen atoms from either water or carbon dioxide to replace what’s missing, yielding hydrogen or carbon monoxide (which in turn can be combined to form fuels using additional catalysts).

With a windowed aperture through which concentrated sunlight enters, the solar-cavity reactor is designed to internally reflect light multiple times, ensuring efficient capture of incoming solar energy.

Cylindrical pieces of ceric oxide sit inside the cavity and are subjected to hundreds of several heat-cool cycles to induce fuel production.

The study was published last week in the journal Science.

More information: "High-Flux Solar-Driven Thermochemical Dissociation of CO2 and H₂O Using Nonstoichiometric Ceria," by W.C. Chueh; M. Abbott; D. Scipio; S.M. Haile at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA; C. Falter; P. Furler; A. Steinfeld at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland; A. Steinfeld at Solar Technology Laboratory, Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland. Science, January 2011.

Source: AAAS

Source

IP

WIPO

(WO/2009/055037) THERMOCHEMICAL SYNTHESIS OF FUELS FOR STORING THERMAL ENERGY

ABSTRACT: The present invention provides a method for storing thermal energy, such as solar energy, as a fuel, by heating a reactive oxide substrate to a first temperature, such that the reactive oxide substrate is reduced, wherein the reactive oxide substrate includes a cerium oxide. The method also includes contacting the reduced reactive oxide substrate at a second temperature with a gas mixture including carbon dioxide, wherein the first temperature is greater than the second temperature, thereby preparing the fuel. The present invention also provides a method for preparing the reactive oxide substrates by heating a mixture including a doped cerium oxide and a pore-forming agent, such that pores are formed in the doped cerium oxide, thereby forming the reactive oxide substrate. Source

US

United States Patent Application	20090107044
Kind Code	A1
Haile; Sossina M. ; et al.	April 30, 2009

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THERMOCHEMICAL SYNTHESIS OF FUELS FOR STORING THERMAL ENERGY

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for storing thermal energy, such as solar energy, as a fuel, by heating a reactive oxide substrate to a first temperature, such that the reactive oxide substrate is reduced, wherein the reactive oxide substrate includes a cerium oxide. The method also includes contacting the reduced reactive oxide substrate at a second temperature with a gas mixture including carbon dioxide, wherein the first temperature is greater than the second temperature, thereby preparing the fuel. The present invention also provides a method for preparing the reactive oxide substrates by heating a mixture including a doped cerium oxide and a pore-forming agent, such that pores are formed in the doped cerium oxide, thereby forming the reactive oxide substrate.

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Inventors:

Haile; Sossina M.; (Pasadena, CA) ; Chueh; William C.; (Pasadena, CA)

Source

US PAIR [Insert 20090107044 in "Publication Number" and hit "Search"]

Patent Application Information Retrieval
	Order Certified Application As Filed Order Certified File Wrapper View Order List 12/257,840 THERMOCHEMICAL SYNTHESIS OF FUELS FOR STORING THERMAL ENERGY

Scientists Discover New Way to Generate Electricity

By Michelle Bryner, TechNewsDaily Contributor
11 March 2010 10:31 AM ET

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A carbon nanotube (shown in illustration) can produce a very rapid wave of power when it is coated by a layer of fuel and ignited, so that heat travels along the tube. Credit: Christine Daniloff

Researchers have found a way to produce large amounts of electricity from tiny cylinders made from carbon atoms.

The achievement could replace decades-old methods of generating electricity, such as combustion engines and turbines, the researchers say.

In the future, coated carbon nanotubes crafted from individual atoms could power everything from cell phones to hybrid-electric vehicles. The team envisions such nanotube-based power being available to consumers in the next five years.

Carbon nanotubes are thin sheets of carbon rolled up into teensy tubes each with a diameter about 30,000 times smaller than a strand of hair.

When carbon — one of the most abundant elements on Earth — is rolled up into tubes, it exhibits some extraordinary properties such as high heat conduction, which the team exploited in the new study.

A carbon firecracker

The researchers coated the nanotubes with a fuel, such as gasoline or ethanol, and applied heat to one end. The result: The fuel reacts and produces more heat, which ignites more fuel to create even more heat.

The process creates “a wave that travels like dominoes falling in a line [down the length of the nanotube],” said study team member Michael Strano, a chemical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The resulting heat wave, it turns out, also creates a wave of electrons moving in one direction – aka electricity.

“The thermal wave squeezes electrons out of the nanotubes like a tube of toothpaste,” Strano explained.

The devices built in the MIT lab produced 10 times more power than a lithium-ion battery of equivalent mass.

“What's intriguing about these waves is that we haven’t really done any engineering to make them efficient yet and already they’re ten times [more powerful than] a lithium-ion battery,” Strano told TechNewsDaily. “We may be able to make very very small power sources out of them."

Cell phone battery replacement

The fuel-coated nanotubes could replace batteries for cell phones and other devices. Strano imagines a device with a button that you would push to create heat from friction, triggering the electricity-generating reaction inside the microscopic tubes.

These power devices could be made 10 times smaller than today’s cell-phone batteries but still hold the same amount of power. Furthermore, unlike today’s batteries, the carbon nanotube variety would not contain any toxic metals.

With some tweaking, the carbon nanotubes could even power a car, Strano said. But instead of coating the carbon cylinders with fuel, a liquid fuel could be stored in the car's gas tank and get injected onto the carbon nanotube battery when needed.

Strano said he was confident his team's discovery could be translated into commercial batteries within a few years.

“We have a lot of engineering challenges that we have to overcome in order to make this a commercial device," Strano said, "but nothing is as difficult as the initial discovery."

Strano and his colleagues detail their discovery in the March 7 issue of the journal Nature Materials.

Source

Kanzius and water as fuel

Here's a sexy story - this guy Kanzius I follow - he's a radio guy and has a device that may, likely will, cure cancer using radio waves and nanoparticles and it is actively under development by renowned cancer centers - has found that when he zaps water with salt in it (salt water - like ocean water!) with his radio wave device - the very one he developed to treat cancer patients - he gets something out of the water that burns! Is it H2? Is it something else? He doesn't know but is researching the thing to find out. Now, if he can get fuel from water and do so putting in less energy than he gets out - I'm interested to say the least. I follow this guy around the internet like a puppy dog in heat. Will I make a dime from all my 'efforts'? We shall see.

Ref:
If we could just burn salt water, we'd never run out of fuel
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=23680803

High frequency radiation splits water
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=20519506

Kanzius/Splitting H2O/background search results
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=20513289

Kanzius and H2/Water burns
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=20056619