Novel Carbon Dioxide Capture Agents for the Synthesis of Sustainable Hydrocarbon Fuels

Advanced energy conversion and storage technology is under intense development to meet the increasing power demand by the military. Consumption of petroleum-based JP-8 fuel for propulsion and for electricity generation in battlefield places a heavy logistic burden to the Army as evidenced during the recent wars. The cost and availability of this conventional energy source is becoming an important factor to the success of the military operations at present and in the future. Taking into account of the fully burdened cost of the petroleum fuel used in theater, and the extra vulnerability rendered by the dependence on this sole energy source, the Army needs to explore the possibility to develop capability to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuel from dilute (~400 ppm) but vastly abundant CO2 and water in the atmosphere anywhere on the globe. This technology, if fully developed, will enable the military to obtain a higher degree of energy security. In this activity, Lynntech is proposing a new class of CO2 binding organic liquids that chemically capture and release CO2 much more efficiently than other capture systems to extract CO2 from the air and use it as chemical feedstock for making liquid hydrocarbon fuel.