Fuel synthesis studies

So the question should never be (nor has it ever been) one of choosing between all catalytic chemists studying ortho-para hydrogen conversion, molecular orbitals and the like, or all catalytic chemists studying fuel synthesis and exhaust catalysts a healthy society is a judiciously balanced society, and the concern for relevance is one for a shift toward greater dedication in the direction of the most vital needs for the survival and health of the kinetic system of human society. 

Electroanalytical chemists and others are concerned not only with the application of new and classical techniques to analytical problems, but also with the fundamental theoretical principles upon which these techniques are based. Electroanalytical techniques are proving useful in such diverse fields as electro-organic synthesis, fuel cell studies, and radical ion formation, as well as with such problems as the kinetics and mechanisms of electrode reactions, and the effects of electrode surface phenomena, adsorption, and the electrical double layer on electrode reactions. 

The basic conversion scheme is depicted in Figure I and the processing equipment is shown in Figure II. The system is operated continuously and is a simulator of commerical scale processing for the most part. Thus equipment and procedure development has accompanied factor and optimization studies. The system is conveniently divided into two sections (1) gasification, and (2) liquid fuels synthesis. 

Garsuch A, MacIntyre K, Michaud X, Stevens DA, Dahn JR (2008) Fuel cell studies on a nonnoble metal catalyst prepared by a template-assisted synthesis route. J Electrochem Soc 155 (9) B953-B957... 

Natural Gas Upgrading via Fischer-Tropsch. In the United States, as in other countries, scarcities from World War II revived interest in the synthesis of fuel substances. A study of the economics of Fischer synthesis led to the conclusion that the large-scale production of gasoline from natural gas offered hope for commercial utiHty. In the Hydrocol process (Hydrocarbon Research, Inc.) natural gas was treated with high purity oxygen to produce the synthesis gas which was converted in fluidized beds of kon catalysts (42). 

Potential fusion appHcations other than electricity production have received some study. For example, radiation and high temperature heat from a fusion reactor could be used to produce hydrogen by the electrolysis or radiolysis of water, which could be employed in the synthesis of portable chemical fuels for transportation or industrial use. The transmutation of radioactive actinide wastes from fission reactors may also be feasible. This idea would utilize the neutrons from a fusion reactor to convert hazardous isotopes into more benign and easier-to-handle species. The practicaUty of these concepts requires further analysis. 

A low calorific value gas, which includes nitrogen from air, could be produced for boiler or turbine use in electric power production, or an intermediate calorific value gas containing no nitrogen for an industrial fuel gas, or synthesis gas for chemical and methane production could be provided. This approach which has been studied in Russia, Europe, Japan, and the United States, is stiU noncommercial in part because it is not economically competitive. 

Since the first report on the ferrocene mediated oxidation of glucose by GOx [69], extensive solution-phase studies have been undertaken in an attempt to elucidate the factors controlling the mediator-enzyme interaction. Although the use of solution-phase mediators is not compatible with a membraneless biocatalytic fuel cell, such studies can help elucidate the relationship between enzyme structure, mediator size, structure and mobility, and mediation thermodynamics and kinetics. For example, comprehensive studies on ferrocene and its derivatives [70] and polypy-ridyl complexes of ruthenium and osmium [71, 72] as mediators of GOx have been undertaken. Ferrocenes have come to the fore as mediators to GOx, surpassing many others, because of factors such as their mediation efficiency, stability in the reduced form, pH independent redox potentials, ease of synthesis, and substitutional versatility. Ferrocenes are also of sufficiently small size to diffuse easily to the active site of GOx. However, solution phase mediation can only be used if the future biocatalytic fuel cell... 

This effort was funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Grant NNX07AB93A under a project entitled Basic Studies for the Production and Upgrading of Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Products to Fuels and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This research was carried out, in part, at the National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is supported by the U.S. DOE, Divisions of Materials Science and Chemical Sciences. Special thanks to Dr. Nebojsa Marinkovic (Beamline X18b, NSLS, Brookhaven) for help with X AFS studies and Joel Young (University of Oklahoma, Department of Physics) for XAFS cell construction. 

The potential importance of homogeneous catalytic reactions in synthesis gas transformations (i.e., hydrogenation of carbon monoxide) has been widely recognized in recent years. In the first place, such systems could provide structural and mechanistic models for the currently more important, but more difficult to study, heterogeneous catalysts. Secondly, product selectivity is generally more readily achievable with homogeneous catalysts, and this would be an obviously desirable feature in an efficient process converting synthesis gas to useful chemicals and fuels. 

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