Canadian Research: Combining Hydrogen and C02 to Make Synfuel – An Alternative to Fossil Fuels

Can Hydrogen and carbon, especially CO2, be combined inexpensively to produce Low Carbon Hydrogen Fuel (LCHF) light, medium, and heavy Synfuels?

Hydrogen is the foundation of all fossil fuels and for that reason they are called hydrocarbons. Hydrogen is the most common element. Hydrogen is the source of the Sun’s energy. Hydrogen is a multi-billion dollar industry. Google “Hydrogen Economy” for details.

In Canada there are two separate Hydrogen from natural gas facilities being constructed each costing about $2.5 billion producing Hydrogen to upgrade the Alberta massive heavy oil sands. Plus there is some very interesting Canadian Hydrogen research funded by private industry, federal government, and provinces.

Among the many Canadian Hydrogen research developments there are two noteworthy projects. First, develop technology to combine any source of free Hydrogen with any source of carbon to create LCHF Synfuels. Second, develop technology to split water to separate free Hydrogen in a low capital, low operating process.

Specifically, the Canadian Government is funding research and development for an alternative to fossil fuels, LCHF Synfuel inexpensively and with a favorable energy balance. The Canadian Government Collaborative Research Grant for “Development of the Process for Manufacturing Synthetic Hydrocarbon Fuel from Captured Carbon Dioxide (CO2)” is being funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The research focus is to develop a LCHF synthetic hydrocarbon fuel, Synfuel that is compounded from diverse Hydrogen and carbon sources, especially CO2. LCHF is chemically identical to conventional petroleum-liquid fuel and can be deployed in-place, multi-trillion dollar infrastructure to transport, store, distribute, and market Synfuel. The funded research is based on the conversion of carbon dioxide and water. The research targets are to design flow sheets to cover commercial Synfuel production from carbon monoxide compounded with Hydrogen. Within two years the first LCHF pilot plant should be operational.

Canada is the source of extensive heavy oil sands in Northern Alberta. Hydrogen is the essential element in upgrading heavy oil, API 4- 8, to API 24-28 so the crude oil can be sent through a pipeline and then conventionally refined. There has been considerable work for years to produce an inexpensive source of free Hydrogen. Current technology requires billion dollar Hydrogen facilities for heavy oil which make Hydrogen from natural gas. So the capital costs are high and operating costs are high. The issue is to find a technology to make free Hydrogen inexpensively and quickly.

The NSERC grant has been made to Phoenix Canada Oil Company and the research is being conducted at the University of Ottawa Institute of Technology (UOIT) Engineering Research department, headed by Dr. F. H. Tezel. The reason Phoenix Canada received the Grant is that for five years they have funded Hydrogen technology research and have been issued two U.S. Patents (with key international patents pending) for Hydrogen from water technology. Issued between 2006 to 2009, these patents are the first ever granted for generating low cost hydrogen from water-splitting after decades of research to develop this technology. Phoenix Canada also has international provisional patents on compounding of Hydrogen gas with captured carbon emissions to produce a full range of Synfuels from light-end jet fuels and kerosene to mid-range gasoline, and heavy-end diesel oil products.

The purpose of both research projects is to take the successful laboratory technologies to a pilot plant stage within the next couple years. The objective of the current Synfuel research is to design, engineer, and build a pilot plant to make LCHF Synfuel in the next few years, especially from inexpensive free Hydrogen and equally free C02, with important substantial environmental benefits.