From: Bruce Sterling [bruces@well.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2002 12:47 PM

Subject: Viridian Note 00328: Fuel from CO²

Key concepts:
Nakamichi Yamasaki, hydrocarbon generation, carbon dioxide, industrial chemistry

Attention Conservation Notice:
Yet another weird Nipponese scheme, about some miracle gizmo that runs on pollution

Links:

Tornados in Britain? Maybe it really is the 51st State. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002362050,00.html

Newfangled suntan pill alleged to have peculiar side- effects. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=18672487

See all those really bright places? Well, that's where the Greenhouse comes from. http://www3.cosmiverse.com/news/earthobservatory/0802/images/land_ocean_ice_lights_080602_1bi g.jpg

The West Nile plague has reached Austin. http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17239/story.htm

Entries in the Global Civil Society Design Contest.

From: Steven W. Schuldt <swschuldt*mac.com>
http://www.americanrobotz.com/images2/Soon_GlobalCivilSocietyLaptop.jpg

From: Ben Davis <bend*earthlink.net>
http://www.digitaleverything.com/GlobalComputer.htm

From: Joerg F. Wittenberger <Joerg.Wittenberger*pobox.com>
http://www.askemos.org/ http://www.askemos.org:9080/RomePaper.pdf

From: Scott Vandehey <scot*spaceninja.com >
http://spaceninja.com/viridian/notebook.html

From: Bob Morris <bob*bomoco.com>
http://viridianrepository.com/GlobalCivil/

From: Anonymous http://home.freiepresse.de/befis/zx2000.html http://apollo.spaceports.com/~bodo4all/zx/zx97.htm http://www.vkb.co.il/

From: Jim Thompson <jim*musenki.com>
http://www.simputer.org http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/07/05/india.simputer.reut/index.html

From: Mike Rosing <eresrch*eskimo.com>
http://www.eskimo.com/~eresrch/viridian

From: Till Westermayer <till*tillwe.de>
http://www.westermayer.de/till/projekte/02gcsdl.htm

From: Duncan Stewart <stewarts*stewarts.org?>
http://www.stewarts.org/viridian/GCS

From: R. Charles Flickinger <idlewild*mac.com>
http://homepage.mac.com/iHUG/GCS2000.html

From: Kevin Prichard <kevin*indymedia.org>
http://www.nah6.com/ http://www.nah6.com/nah6-h2k2_files/v3_document.html

From: Dave Phelan <dphelan*pavilion.co.uk

"Please find my entry here:" http://www.btinternet.com/~dphelan/viridian/gcs-computer.html

"I'm no graphic artist – the feature list is the important part of the design."

dphelan*pavilion.co.uk Blog: http://www.btinternet.com/~dphelan

This contest expires in four days: August 15, 2002.

"Carbon dioxide turned into hydrocarbon fuel
(((Please, no immediate lectures on the second law of thermodynamics. I have plenty of those.)))

"16:00 02 August 02

"A way to turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbons has caused a big stir at an industrial chemistry conference in New Brunwick, New Jersey. Nakamichi Yamasaki of the Tokushima Industrial Technology Center in Japan says he has a process that makes propane and butane at relatively low temperatures and pressures."

Link: Yes, he actually exists:
http://www.it.sakura.ne.jp/~koatsu/c_journal/ab/1_10/01-2.html http://www.itc.pref.tokushima.jp/English/eindex.html

"Making fuel from greenhouse gases

"While his work still needs independent verification, (((okay, go fetch us some, then))) if he can make even heavier hydrocarbons, it might be possible to make petrol. It has carbon chains that are between five and 12 atoms long – butane is four atoms long. ((("That's right, Professor: I just hook it up to the sky and I make gasoline!")))

"The work suggests the tantalising prospect that CO², the main greenhouse gas, could be recycled instead of being pumped into the atmosphere.

"Many people have tried before to make hydrocarbons by mixing carbon with hydrogen gas in a reaction chamber at very high temperatures, but yields have always been pitiful. Yamasaki has used hydrochloric acid as his source of hydrogen ions. ((("But where are we s'posed to get all that hydrochloric acid?" Yes, I know, I know.)))

"He bubbles the CO² into a reaction vessel where it is heated to about 300 C at 100 times atmospheric pressure. The heat and pressure are low enough, says Yamasaki, to make it feasible to scale up the reaction so it can run on a power station's waste heat. (((Imagine the fun when a giant tank of pressurized acid blows up.)))

"Iron powder

"Using iron powder as a catalyst, Yamasaki says he has made substantial amounts of methane, ethane, propane and butane, which he was able to vent off as gases when the mixture cooled. If he can improve the catalyst's performance he is hopeful of making heavier hydrocarbons such as petrol, too.

"William Siegfried, who has lead similar experiments at the University of Minnesota in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, says his group was only able to make methane at far higher temperatures. But his process also used a nickel-based alloy as a catalyst, rather than iron.

"Siegfried's group was investigating whether natural methane deposits might have formed chemically with the metal in rocks acting as a catalyst rather than forming from the decay of rotting biological material over aeons. (((Paging Thomas Gold! "Deep Hot Biosphere" calling on line one.)))

"Unless Yamasaki's technology can make the more valuable heavier hydrocarbons such as petroleum, which are liquid at room temperature, it will not be much more use than present-day bioreactors, in which bacteria that like to feed on CO² are induced to produce methane. 'Organisms have a special talent for that kind of reaction,' says Siegfried.