DE102008005264A1 - Converting carbon dioxide into oxygen and glucose for use in fuel preparation, involves utilizing algae battery for collecting carbon dioxide from power plant emissions, and converting collected carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen - Google Patents

Abstract

Carbon dioxide conversion involves utilizing algae battery for collecting carbon dioxide from power plant emissions, and converting collected carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen by using algae battery. The conversion is accomplished with help of photosynthesis and water.

Description

1. Current situation

We live in a highly developed industrial society. Many electrical equipment Simplify and enrich our everyday lives, because almost nobody washes his laundry Nowadays by hand, there is the washing machine, and Electric hobs are more comfortable to cook than the earlier ones Wood fired stoves. Also increase electrical and electronic devices significantly increase our effectiveness. First of all there is the entire computer technology, without a computer would in nothing works in our modern society. Practically everything is computer-controlled or from computer-controlled systems dependent, just to name a few explosive examples: traffic lights would turn Without computer switch no more, this would be a traffic chaos unimagined extent cause. The computer has also been used in medicine for a long time and controls vital systems there. Our entire Industry is based on energy hungry electrical and electronic Machinery and equipment. To uphold our standard of living So it's of immense importance, affordable electrical energy in sufficient quantity and at all times available. However the question: "Justifies this fact in connection with the provision of those Energy related environmental damage? "Even the seemingly so clean and environmentally friendly, since carbon dioxide free, and cheap Energy production through nuclear fission has its downside. you know until Today, not where you get the accumulating radioactive waste for the next millennia can safely store, there are so far only intermediate storage, which not to solve the waste problem capital, as these are not suitable final deposits.

The Of course, the ultimate in generating electricity is the renewable energies with their minimal environmental impact and their inexhaustible Primary energy sources, such as For example, the solar energy that will last until the end of our life Star will be present on Earth, so too probable End of life on earth, but this will still be seven billion Years in coming.

The However, renewable energies have a decisive disadvantage across from usual Power plants that use their energy from fossil fuels or uranium win. Are much more expensive to purchase and operate than the just mentioned Power plants. Another requirement for today's as well as future electric Power generating equipment is provided that they are within short Time with as possible high total power can be installed, because of energy hunger the nation is growing steadily. Fulfill this requirement Thermal power stations like gas or coal power plants most likely. However, these are power plants very controversial, as they are at a very low efficiency, at modern coal-fired power plants about forty to forty-five percent, and one high carbon dioxide emissions come up. However, techniques are currently being developed around this gas from remaining exhaust gas mixture, mostly Steam, to be separated. One then plans the separated gas to pump into underground caverns. However, this is very energy consuming and associated with high additional costs.

2. My idea

Out That's why I thought, how to make the deposited carbon dioxide also economical could use. The current discussion about Biodiesel and bioethanol as fuels for motor vehicles inspired I finally came to the following idea: You could huge green plants farms create this gas with the help of solar radiation into oxygen and convert biomass. This results in large amounts of biomass. Of the stored sugar in the plants can be technically low Effort to be processed into ethanol. This can now be powered by motor vehicles become. Brazil is a good example of a fuel economy ethanol-based can work very well. This technique can us so independent from oil imports from abroad. This would stabilize the fuel prices and the environmental impact of the Carbon dioxide emissions of the Significantly reduce motor vehicle traffic, since the amount of carbon dioxide emitted ultimately only the amount absorbed by the plants and this delivered to the atmosphere without this further use would. Thus, therefore, the energy yield of the energy in the power plants used indirectly improved fossil fuel. In addition, can be with a part of the exhaust heat heat the plant so that the plants used remain at a constant level Temperature can be stored. This improves the glucose yield, which is highest at a constant 35 ° C, and ensures in winter that the plants are not affected by frost destroyed become.

2.1 The problem

The Photosynthesis of plants only works in sunlight. And you need a very large acreage for the plants. This would be very expensive and would agricultural area waste. Furthermore have to the plants are hermetically sealed from the environment by a building because the carbon dioxide gas should not get into the environment, but harmless of these Oxygen gas and glucose are converted. But you need one enormous biomass to realize this project. As do you accommodate this mass of plants in a building? (Chapter 4.1, 2nd paragraph)

2.2 The storage of CO ₂

There the solar radiation varies with the time of day, you would have to store the carbon dioxide produced at dark times of the day. The stored carbon dioxide can be turned off again at lunchtime pump out and over direct the plant farm, as the solar radiation at this time the highest and the photosynthetic power is directly proportional to the solar radiation rises or falls.

Also the problem of seasonal fluctuations in photosynthetic performance let yourself loosen by intermediate storage.

The Interim storage can be carried out, for example, in underground cavities. This is very expensive, but necessary. (See 4.2 for more)

3.1 How much carbon dioxide is produced actually an average German lignite power plant?

The Niederaussem power plant, with its new block of lignite-fired power plants with optimized plant technology (BoA), will probably be the pioneer for future lignite-fired power plants. As many lignite-fired power plants will be modernized or rebuilt in the future, I will take this power plant as an example of a future average lignite-fired power plant. It has an installed capacity of 1012 MW gross and an efficiency of 43%. ³

Reaction of carbon with oxygen:

• C + O ₂ → CO ₂ + heat

Purity carbon (graphite) and oxygen gas each containing 0 H _f ⁰ contains in kJ / mol, and carbon dioxide gas -393.8 H _f ⁰ in kJ / mol. That is, in the reaction of oxygen with carbon 393.8 H _f ^{0 are released} in kJ / mol.

(1.012 x 10 ^ 6) kJ / 393.8 kJ / mol =) 2.57 × 10 -3 mol carbon dioxide are produced per second at an efficiency of 100%. At a real efficiency of 43% arise (2.57 · 10 ^ 3 · mol (100/43) =) 5976.74 mol carbon dioxide gas per second.

This would mean that in this power plant block about 61.68 m ³ (at 24 ° C warm gas) carbon dioxide gas per second would arise if the efficiency of the system would be 100%. However, since the efficiency is 43%, the carbon dioxide output per second ((100/43) x 61.68 m ³ =) must be 143.44 m ³ .

3.2 How much glucose is produced?

Photosynthesis equation (net reaction equation):

• 6CO ₂ + 6H ₂ O → C ₆ H ₁₂ O ₆ + 6O ₂ ΔH ⁰ = + 2870 kJ / mol

When all the resulting carbon dioxide is consumed by the plants, (5976.74 mol / 6 mol =) 996, 12 moles of glucose per second. This corresponds to (180 g / mol · 996.12 mol = 179301.6 g =) 179.30 kg (rounded) glucose per second. This would correspond to a daily production of 15,000 t (rounded) or an annual production of 5.7 · 10 ^ 6 t (rounded), provided the power plant produces the same output 365 days a year. For illustration: see 1 ,

3.3 What amount of ethanol could be used? win from it?

The net reaction equation for the conversion of glucose into ethanol is: C ₆ H ₁₂ O ₆ + 2ADP + 2P _i → 2C ₂ H ₅ OH + 2CO ₂ + 2ATP

That is, at a conversion efficiency of 100%, this means an annual ethanol production of (996, 12 mol · 60 ² · 8760 · 2 =) 6.28 · 10 ^ 10 moles of glucose. This corresponds to (996, 12 mol · 60 ² · 8760 · 2 · 46 g / mol · (1/1000) =) 2.89 · 10 ^ 9 kg (rounded) or (2.89 · 10 ^ 9 kg / 0.79 kg / dm ³ =) 3.66 × 10 9 l ethanol.

It could used as E100 or with 15% gasoline as E85. It Many series models already exist in the catalogs of the automotive industry, that can drive with E85. At petrol stations he is for around 92 cents per liter offered. The additional consumption is 30%, so driving at a price of 1.35 EUR petrol about 10% cheaper would.

The sale of ethanol as E85 would bring a gain of (since E85 has almost the same density as ethanol, one can neglect the density difference) 0.92 EUR - (1.35EUR · 0.15) =) 0.7175 EUR per liter (at a price of 1.35 and an E85 price of 92 cents). Selling the full amount of ethanol produced yields a profit of EUR 2.62605 billion. (Ethanol molecule: 2 )

4 realization

4.1 How much biomass is needed?

Provides the farm for tropical climate, and plants adapted to the climate small, very productive plants, such. Ferns, they would, if planted very densely, produce a similarly high photosynthetic net primary production as the tropical rainforest. Photosynthesis net primary production is reported as carbon mass in the biomass formed. The following calculation gives the required area needed to process a CO ₂ output of 5976.74 mol / second (The stated output is an estimate for a typical coal-fired power plant):
5976.74 mol / second · 31,536 · (10 ^ 6 seconds / a) · 12 g / mol · (1/1000 kg / g) = 2.26 · 10 ^ 9 kg / a (rounded). Assuming that the net photosynthesis of primary production in our farm is one kilogram per year per square meter, it takes 2.26 x 10 ^ 9 m ^{2 of} biomass to convert all the carbon dioxide produced. This would be about the size of Algeria.

So you have to use another plant, but which plant can that be? I came to the conclusion that algae would be the best choice, because according to Wikipedia lakes have a net photosynthesis production of 2008 / m ² · a. Assuming that 1% of the lake is made up of algae, that is 1% of the total production, that would mean that if you remove the water content and this m ^{2 is} only covered with algae, algae would have a net photosynthesis production from
((200 g / ^m2 · a) · 100 =) 20000 g / ^m2 · a.

For the accommodation of the algae it is best to use a very dense nanogitter made of a titanium alloy. Because the grid must be extremely stable, resistant and it must be rust-free. Each 1 m ² square of this grid hangs with its four corners on four solid columns of stainless steel with a diameter of 10 cm. And between the squares is a distance of 10 cm, so that the carbon dioxide gas can get better to the algae. In addition, it would be best every ten meters insert a false ceiling of gas-tight hard plastic. On the one hand this would give the columns more stability and on the other hand this would facilitate the uniform distribution of the gas to the algae. A thickness of 2 cm would be enough.

Example graphic ( 3 yellow columns, gray nano-grid):

Accordingly, the area required for the algae is 1.130894836 · 10 ^ 8 m ² . The needed construction So the work could look like this: A building of 7000 m ² floor area would have to be 80.78 m (rounded) high. Depending on how high the local land costs are you would have to consider whether it is cheaper to choose a larger footprint and a correspondingly lower height or vice versa. In my example, however, the columns and necessary intermediate floors are not included. The real base area would be larger due to the gaps around 1461.6334 m ² . And the building would be 16 cm higher (2 cm x 8 =).

The relationship of oxygen and carbon dioxide can be detected by sensors, and thus by a computer according to the ideal value of about 10% oxygen adapted (plants also need oxygen for their cellular respiration)

4.2 Light is needed for photosynthesis.

One such project on the power plant site realize, because the base area of the needed building would be in my example about as big as a football field with career. Another problem is the supply of sufficient Sunlight, because now the algae are indeed space-saving, but are now in the dark. Without light works known no photosynthesis. But how are the sunbeams up to the Get plants? Even if you build the building from glass, the Solar radiation unevenly distributed and the plants in the center of the hall would still be in the dark. The solution of the problem could from big ones Parabolic mirrors, which are distributed around the farm, the sun tracked and guide the captured light to mirrors on the roof of the building. These direct the concentrated sunlight through UVB filters to other mirrors in the hall that scatter the light so that it evenly in the room distributed, this of course sets advance, that the intermediate floors absolutely translucent and completely are anti-reflective. The UVB filters are necessary as UVB radiation is the photosynthetic power of plants negatively affected. With red and blue light is photosynthesis is the most effective.

5. Financing

5.1 Cost of the project

The Construction costs of the building wealth I'm about twenty to thirty Million Euros. Because the parabolic mirror, which is very good would be suitable still being tested leaves over say very little about the purchase price of this component. I guess that Thyssen-Krupp a unit price will demand about one million euros. That for the grid used titanium will probably be the most expensive on the whole project, as this metal is currently very much in the aircraft industry especially but only a limited amount is available on the market is. As the price for Titanium and its alloys but is subject to very strong fluctuations, is over its future Price hard to say something. The algae will hardly matter, especially as you go for this use does not require algae, used for food production or diesel production become. The necessities Microalgae hardly matter. They are very cheap to buy the market, and multiply very rapidly, putting it she hardly claims in their growth environment, they are very frugal plants. So that the plants can grow have to they are always wetted with water, this could be irrigation systems at the stainless steel columns guarantee, the water collecting on the ground can of course be caught again and be reused. These irrigation systems allow also distributing the algae in the beginning, in which this the water be added and with relatively little water on the nano grid rinsed become. The irrigation systems will also help with the harvest. Due to strong vibrations, over transfer the columns be solved The algae from their tight seat in the nano grid and are then with a lot of water was washed from their platforms and collected on the shelves. From there you can she over a piping system are pumped out and then out to be filtered in the water. The amount of glucose contained in them can now be obtained by appropriate factories, and industrially to be processed into ethanol. So that would be a very cost effective System available, which ensures the operation of the system. However, the maintenance is only about various remote-controlled Robot possible, because the distances between the nano grid squares are too small, than that a human could stay there. These robots would the stainless steel columns use as rails and on thin ones Steel cables are pulled up and lowered again. As a side effect, the staff costs are minimized, because a single Technician could so control the entire system from his computer.

The project would pay for itself very quickly because the plant would be very productive. With a profit of 2.62605 billion euros, which resulted from the sales proceeds of the produced ethanol per year and estimated annual operating costs of about ten million euros would result in an annual increase of 2.61605 billion euros (I neglect taxes in this calculation example).
(100000000 EUR / (2616050000 (EUR / day) / 365)) = 14 days (rounded)

These Invoice shows that the plant after only fourteen days paid. It should be therefore, there is no problem in attracting investors to this project, as it is a very lucrative business promises.

5.2 Promotion through the "renewable Energies law "

Also a promotion through the "renewable Energies law "would be conceivable because this technique protects the climate, it is new and has a very high potential. But for a promotion To obtain it requires that certain political framework be created. First thing would have to the technology is considered environmentally friendly and accepted. Furthermore, would have a community agree to the construction and environmental sustainability must be proved. The downside of this path is that he as all political decisions take a long time. In between could even competing products dominate the market. This would be the Realization of this project very difficult or even impossible.

Therefore you should rather after financially strong Investors, such as the energy providers themselves, are looking for to enable a quick realization. After the start of construction In any case, the policy becomes aware of this technology anyway and decreases it may be maybe even in the support program of the "EEG." This would then the realization of further plants at other coal power plants simplify.

Summary and summary

The Idea is therefore quite feasible. It is now enough light taken care of so that photosynthesis can take place. Big parabolic mirrors Collect the needed Sunlight and pass this bundled to other mirrors. These mirrors now scatter the light evenly throughout the building, in the plants grow.

seaweed are for This insert is best suited because they are undemanding and resistant. Furthermore, they can be arranged in a very space-saving manner (on water and light quantum permeable gratings) and have a high photosynthesis net primary production rate. Plants produce with the help of light (especially red and blue Light) from carbon dioxide gas and water glucose. This one too Grape sugar called substance is very energetic and can be by alcoholic fermentation convert to ethanol. This alcohol can for example motor vehicles drive. It is sold as E85 at petrol stations. Vehicles that powered by E85 produce up to eighty percent less Carbon dioxide gas than conventional with Gasoline powered.

Around To control the operation of the plant requires only one person, the the control computer operates, as in the building itself human work Design not possible would be, especially the carbon dioxide content in the air is dangerously high.

The Harvest and irrigation the algae is managed by irrigation systems.

The Construction costs for The project is estimated to be a hundred million Euro. After only two weeks would to amortize the investment.

The Financing would be Therefore fast to accomplish, since investors a very lucrative business could expect.

In summary So you can say that this technique is the environment and the wallet of the owner would be very beneficial. This plant would no climate damaging Cause carbon dioxide, since the resulting in the engines of ethanol cars Carbon dioxide gas otherwise anyway from the tapped coal power plant pushed out would have been. You would be in my opinion, an ideal interim solution until the hundred percent renewable energy such as wind and sun efficiently and cheaply, in big enough Amount of electricity can produce and the fuel for motor-driven Means of transport hydrogen is called. There is a future need for research especially in the optics that provide the plants with sunlight and in the development of the needed Special robots.

Claims (1)

Real Green Coal. A battery of algae takes the carbon dioxide separated from power plant exhaust gases It converts it into glucose with the help of photosynthesis and water and oxygen around. The glucose can later for fuel production be used. The above-mentioned "algae battery" processes the in the power plant resulting carbon dioxide gas completely, so that the carbon dioxide gas does not get into the atmosphere, and thus the climate is protected becomes. 1. The algae are based on nanogels, which in an air-conditioned room at a constant temperature are located. 2. The water supply of the algae is over Irrigation system allows. This ensures that algae is constantly be supplied with sufficient water. 3. The size of the plant depends on the power plant output. 4. The nano-grid are at metal columns suspended. 5th The system can be controlled and maintained by a single person become.