NatroX System

The NatroX™ System

Sodium Hydroxide-Carbonate Cycle System

The big problem in carbon sequestration will be the motor vehicle. They are very popular, well-lobbied for offenders that are difficult to deal with as as whatever we add must be light in weight. To date the engineering solution for efficiency has been to make cars with electric motors and expensive batteries, but not address the CO2 problem directly. The strategy is to increase efficiency. This is a back door approach.

Electric cars and "hybrids" are not a good answer. They add more problems and inefficiencies. Therefore, we propose something that not only solves the CO2 capture and sequestration problem while improving efficiency, but the nuclear waste problem as well. To wit:

A small, one liter turbocharged Diesel engine, burning virtually any hydrocarbon can provide performance of the kind automobile buyers want and need to feel safe in traffic if the car is very light in weight. The Geo-Metro four seater, which did not crash well, but built with a tubular cage frame of chrome-molybdenum steel and carbon-fiber body panels could be much lighter, safer and crash resistant. (See Future Car.)

The carbon sequestering unit is a simple box loaded with proprietary lightly radioactive sodium hydroxide "X" castings with four times the surface area of NaOH drops or crystals. Diluted nuclear waste inclusion encourages the formation of sodium carbonate dendrite branches by emitting gamma rays on the surface of the "X" castings of NatroX™ ionizing immediate molecules to encourage the formation of carbonates.

Seen here from the side the scrubber is a simple sheet metal box with perforated tubes fed from a top box resevoir loaded with NatroX™ "X" castings by a filler pipe leading to a filler cap on the vehicle exterior. The perforated tubes are placed so exhaust gas has to pass through pellets. The bottom has a receiving box to hold the tiny carbonate crystals that form on the "X" castings in the tubes. Carbonate crystals grow on them as tiny feather-like dendrites. The dendrites are brittle and break off from vibration to fall through the perforated tube bottoms into the lower box where they are held until dumped to a receiving system at a fueling station. The hydroxide to carbonate chemical reaction reduces the volume of the gas as much as compressing it with 555 atmospheres or 8,159 pounds/square inch pressure with no energy required for compression while reducing the temperature of the product!

NatroX™

“Put X in your scrubber.”

With a trade name derived from the Latin “Natrium” for metallic sodium and an “oX,” clipped from hydroxide, it can be cast into forms with much greater surface area than the spheres normally formed when fused (melted) sodium hydroxide is poured into cold air for making Lye. NaOH fuses at 318 Celsius degrees. Small “X” figures with a cross section of 8 mm with 3 mm long legs of 2 mm diameter will have a mass of 1.2 grams. They loosely pack with channels through which air can pass in contact the hydroxide surface. The “X’s” have four times the surface area per unit mass as spheres and work that much better at scrubbing CO2 compared to spherical pellets.

Nuclear Waste to the Rescue

The hydroxide includes nuclear fuel waste that accomplishes two things: It identifies the product and the source of manufacture as the isotopic formula varies from one reactor to the next and become an identification code. Alpha and gamma emissions catalyze carbonate dendrite formation by ionizing air near the surface of the hydroxide. This works well as a place for nuclear waste use as it spreads the materials so widely they are not a radioactive hazard in any one place, but promote carbon sequestration instead. Our dealing with nuclear waste will be another large revenue source from the nuclear power industry in getting rid of their problem. And, where we know the location of all the waste it could be recovered quickly if needed.

Heavy metal carbonates are insoluble in water and easily recovered at the point after CO2 is generated. In the time of a national emergency these salts can be recovered for use in power reactors or weapons.

This filter/scrubber would be substantially lighter and cheaper than the battery in any electric car or hybrid as the scrubber is little more than a sheet metal box with ten pounds of NatroX™ pellets held in perforated tubes. Hybrid car batteries weigh several hundred pounds, cost $10,000 installed and last only a few years.

Where the US has a 700 year supply of oil shale and a greater amount of coal we can make Diesel fuel abundantly. The Rentech Co. has updated the WWII German Fischer-Tropsch process to make Diesel fuel from coal for 86 cents (2005) per gallon We expect automobile design to go to small Diesel engines ideal for this system as their exhaust has much CO2 and very little of the dangerous monoxide. The other immediately accessible fuel source is butanol, a product of the Clostridium acetobutylicum bacteria consuming wood, sawdust, corn or grass stalks, while leaving a mash that farm animals and vegetarians will eat when it is pressed into pellets or patties.

Corn produces 3/4 as much mass of stalk and leaves (stover) as grain. If an acre of corn produces 130 bushels, 7280 pounds and 5,460 pounds of stover that will be fed to the Clostridium acetobutylicum bacteria to produce about 35% butanol, 1911 lbs or 320 gallons of fuel that is less volatile or dangerous as gasoline, is transmitable by pipeline, which ethanol is not, gives about 10% more energy per pound than gasoline then it would appear our fuel problems are over forever.

In a one liter turbo-Diesel powered steel-bodied car in the Geo Metro style, 10 pounds of NatroX™ sodium hydroxide pellets could scrub the CO2 from four gallons of fuel getting 50 miles per gallon and a range of 200 miles. Every refueling would require dumping 13.25 pounds of sodium carbonate formed in the apparatus and replace it with 10 pounds of fresh NatroX™, but the car would emit far less CO2 than a comparable hybrid, sell for one-fourth the price and have much lower maintenance costs. The system can be scaled up to any size vehicle or stationary engine installation. We believe that with a properly designed and built chrome-moly/carbon fiber lightweight car the mileage figure could approach 100 miles per gallon.

The sodium hydroxide and carbon dioxide are recovered by wetting the carbonate with water in a sealed container. Water equal to one-third the mass of the carbonate is required for the reaction. The mix is heated to decompose the carbonate to hydroxide, recapturing the CO2 gas. The process develops very high pressure as the volume change from solid carbonate to gas is 1:1200, enough to create up to 17,661 pounds per square inch gas pressure when the salt is heated with water to 318 Celsius degrees. The recovery units can be made for any size from a pound to a ton. They are very simple and output great quantities of carbon dioxide with each charge.

The final recovery operation consists of heating the oxide with some water to drive out any CO2 missed in field units and make hydroxide. Continued heating with the gray Calrod™ heater, per above figure, to dry and melt the hydroxide will permit it to flow onto an iron roller into which "X" patterns have been cut to reform the charging material. For new material we add a radioactive tag substance. Every batch of nuclear waste will have a unique nuclear profile from the several forms of nuclear material incorporated thereby making a unique label for the batch.

The cylinder to the lower right, seen on end, is machined iron dotted with small “X” cuts such that the melted salt coming from the nozzle flows into the carvings where it freezes and then shrinks to become loose in the molds. It falls out when the mold turns to face down. The wheel is turned with a stepper motor to facilitate filling the molds and dumping the castings as the projected melt freezes. The optimum cycle is to be determined by experimentation.

The castings may be shaken off by vibration and shrinkage from the cooling water running through the cylinder. This produces a proprietary product. The number of pounds made can be tracked by recording the number of rotations of the wheel.

SCAF CO2 Generators

    The sodium carbonate product from internal combustion collectors is compressed 555 times by the reaction making the carbonate. As a salt the gas is as condensed as if we had applied 555 atmospheres or 8,159 pounds per square inch, nearly three times commercial gas cylinder pressures. This makes for a convenient reconstitution of the gas by adding a water equal to one-third the mass of the salt and heating it. Relatively dry CO2 gas will emerge from the wet salt almost immediately as the sodium hydroxide is reconstituted.

         If insufficient water is added or too much boils away before the reaction is complete heating will convert the carbonate to sodium oxide, Na2O, which will convert to the hydroxide in the final operation where water is added to pick up any oxide or carbonate in the hydroxide.

         The conversion produces 555 volumes of gas for every volume of salt so extremely high pressures may be generated easily by this simple apparatus. For safety the cap is made of soft metal engineered material that will blow off before the entire cylinder bursts in the event of a line blockage. The generator consists of nothing more than a sealed steel tank with the salt and water charge, a Calrod heater or external flame application and an exit tube for the gas.

       The gas will evolve immediately on heating and most of the CO2 will have been driven from the salt when the mix temperature exceeds 100 Celsius degrees. At that point the unit will need to be emptied of hydroxide and recharged. Gas generators can be any size from a pound to tons, used in the field to directly inject the gas underground as it is recovered where the process generates high pressures.

        Large scale stationary generators for tanking the gas may be constructed. The basic economic is maintained by paying users for the scrubber's carbonate which the NatroX™ facility reconstitutes into the patented "X" forms.

            The process is so adaptable it could be solar powered using the sun to not only supply the gas for a permanent installation, but respond to need depending on the amount of sun shining. When the sun is shining and plants can photosynthesize gas would be produced. When it is overcast or raining the plants cannot photosynthesize, no gas is needed and with no sun none would be produced for the underground supply grid. This would result in a totally natural, self-regulating automated system.

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