Synthetic carbonaceous fuels and feedstocks from oxides of carbon and nuclear power

Abstract

A study has been made on converting alternative sources of oxides of carbon (CO and CO2) to synthetic methanol with nuclear-power-generated electrolytic hydrogen and oxygen. The sources of CO and CO2 include 1.(1) the oxygen-blown blast furnace which produces CO as a by-product from hot-metal production,2.(2) the steam calcination of limestone which products CO2 as a by-product of the lime and cement industry,3.(3) fossil-fuel power plant stack-gas as a source of CO2, and4.(4) the atmosphere, from which CO2 is recovered in a novel carbonate electrolytic cell. The recovered CO or CO2 is catalytically combined with electrolytic H2 to produce the synthetic fuels. In these systems, the conservation, efficiency, and environmental control of coal utilization is significantly improved. Blast-furnace CO could supply up to 20% of the gasoline demand in the USA at a 1985 cost of 56 to 60cent/US gallon, breaking even with $19/Bbl imported oil. The CO2 from steam calcination of limestone could supply about 9% of the gasoline demand and the recovered CO2 from only 60% of the coal-fired power plants in the country could supply all of today’s gasoline demand in the country (≈1011 US gal/yr). The 1985 cost estimates for carbon-dioxide-based gasoline range from 68¢/US gal for the highly concentrated calciner-CO2 feedstream to 83¢/gal for the very dilute atmospheric CO2 feed, breaking even with $21 to $28/barrel oil for conventional gasoline. The dominating cost factor is the electrical power cost from the nuclear plant. The sharing of peaking and base-load costs between the power and synthetic-fuels consumers offers a cost and energy effective system.