Ethanol from carbon monoxide and water

[Centraflow]

I have just been sent a link to this by a friend who knows I work in this area, I am not surprised by this discovery. Here they have made an electrode based on copper oxide as a catalyst, in my area I went down the path of the modification of the electrolyte and created copper coated carbon nanotubes, this was for methanisation.

Here is the link

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/april/ethanol-without-plants-040914.html

And here is my copper coated carbon nano tubes in solution

[evolvingape]

That's a really interesting discovery..

I designed the HELP (Hydro ElectroLytic Pump) specifically for biofuel processing of algae slurry using water as the working fluid with the algae in suspension.

If we were to coat the surface of the electrode discs with these new oxide-derived copper nanocrystals and substitute carbon monoxide as the working fluid I wonder how that would affect the efficiency considering we would also be adding heat and pressure to the process courtesy of the pump.

Thank's for the post Centraflow, found it really interesting

[Peterae]

Sounds like a great discovery, how hard would it be to make the catalyst though.

I'm thinking wood gas to ethanol seen as most of the wood gas is CO.

[evolvingape]

Well how about that, I was just having a chat with Chet on a similar subject and this moment feels so serendipitous I might as well cut and paste the relevant part:

snip

I suppose by now you know what the HELP actually is designed to be, a biofuel processor, but the HELP can be and will be more efficient at cracking the algae cell wall when you include combustion and cavitation and for that you must integrate the HELIS and the HRT into the HELP design in order to do that. This is the secret that I hid, and so far from what I can gather only AllCanadian has publicly given hints that he figured it out. So now you know, spread the word my friend.

Oh yeah I should mention that you get the cavitation for free, as the HELP disc rotors are moving through a dense fluid you only need to create a negative pressure location on the "exhaust" for the cavitation bubbles to form and they should move away at that speed into the fluid away from the HELP rotor and then collapse in the fluid, bursting the algae cell wall. I designed it all into one device and then broke it up and gave it to you in parts to reassemble at a later time. That time has arrived so now you know. The BSP gasifier is also part of the system and will use the algae waste matter after the oil has been extracted to create the secondary explosive gas, the hho being the primary. You have to know how to combine the two correctly in the device and I have not given you that theory, I have only given you clues so far, maybe someone will figure it out one day.

snip

[evolvingape]

shhop 

http://www.overunityresearch.com/index.php?topic=2288.0

http://www.overunityresearch.com/index.php?topic=2050.0

[Paul-R]

Can your thinking be adapted to make ethanol (or similar) from grass cuttings or algae?

[evolvingape]

The HELP is a biofuel processor designed to turn algae into biofuel. The semi elastic properties of the algae cell wall allow oscillation to occur, in the same way as an air bubble oscillates under water. Submerged in the sump of the algae slurry tank it whisks the algae through an electrolytic centrifugal press rapidly changing the cell's electrical polarity at the same time.

Pressure and temperature spikes occur along with shockwaves adding to the total stress of the cell's system courtesy of the fuel gas bubbles. Rupture of the cell wall allows lipids to escape and are separated by specific gravity at the surface, gas liquid boundary. Further processing will be required for biodiesel etc.

http://www.openalgae.com/solutions/oilrecovery/

shhop on the other hand is a thermal displacement pump and is unsuitable for use with copper derived electrode's for secondary liquid fuel production. The problem is that the liquid sleeve is never fully pumped out on each displacement cycle and the surface where the secondary liquid wants to be will accumulate, a vapor relationship will develop and you got problem's. Bad idea!

The solution is to utilise the Supersonic Pulsometer coil circuit, which in the SP turned electrical energy into heat energy, but in the shhop is used in reverse to capture an energy pulse released by a hho combustion event. This pulse could run a copper derived electrode capacitor and produce ethanol like the subject of this thread. Don't get your primary and secondary process's confused or your in the running for a Darwin award, is the moral of the story..

To integrate the secondary liquid fuel produced by the cell a piezoelectric transducer can oscillate droplets above the surface, to be picked up by the venturi on the air compressor injection line. The primary is also mixed via venturi and a fuel anti bubble should be created, to be entrained in the flow and compressed ready for precise ignition, in or around, the area of maximum compression.

Pyrolysis allows us to use gas, just like the woodgas in the BSP gasifier system, to process grass and plastic etc. into primary fuel bubbles, secondary is where all your energy density is, you just need a hammer and anvil in a primary atmosphere to trigger phase change of the secondary, assuming you have sufficient oxidiser for secondary to burn.

[Paul-R]

Infestation of Algae can be a very major problem. It can devastate seaside towns and ruin tourism. The disposal of grass cuttings is also a nuisance since they can spoil compost heaps.

I would have thought that a local authority could arrange for grass cuttings to be collected, rather like regular recyclable goods, taken to a central point where you could take over.

Similar issues to do with algae:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/aug/10/france-brittany-coast-seaweed-algae

A travelling truck borne system would be just the job, especially if some charity were to be given a central role to create cooperation.

[evolvingape]

The BackPressure Flow Control Valve causes a variable resistance in the system outlet and trades fluid flow rate for increased rate of gas pressure build up. Reliable triggering pressures and style of snapvalve employed are important considerations, as are ratios.

The vertical cut slot in the central electrode tube is a carry over from a previous discovery of generating an ignition pulse with 12V DC ? Amps. The central electrode also forms the spark gap with the common earth.

The coil could potentially be swapped out for an ionised gas, picking up the combustion event em pulse directly which then becomes an input to an electrochemical event.

Lot's of fun to be had with this cell, many potential differentials to be explored and exploited.

[evolvingape]

Pulsed Electric Field Pre-Treatment of Algae for Oil Extraction... have a look at the pdf.

Now consider the operating characteristics of the HELP... and you can see where this is going.

Now factor in the "dry biomass waste" that can be recycled via gasification and injected into the HELP rotor as a fuel air bubble... or maybe a fuel air anti-bubble.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_bubble

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibubble

Compression ignition or traditional plasma arc ignition should both be possible (dependant on dielectric breakdown strength value of the fuel bubble gas + 2 (liquid boundary layer dielectric breakdown value)) and give us lot's of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_explosion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh%E2%80%93Taylor_instability

Add cavitation in as well (outside the rotor) and we have got quite a recipe for rupturing those algae cell walls... the high elasticity modulus of the cell wall acting similar to a bubble and providing quite an environment for violent oscillation in a semi-elastic working fluid...

Should be fun