US Navy works on enabling ships to produce fuel from seawater. Obtains first patent

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has been granted the first U.S. patent for a method to simultaneously extract carbon dioxide and hydrogen from seawater.

According to the U.S. Navy agency, this single process provides all the raw materials necessary for the production of synthetic liquid hydrocarbon fuels.

Researchers from the U.S. Naval Reserve, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and NRL are among the co-contributors and inventors in the patent issued April 5, 2016, by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USTPO).

The Electrolytic Cation Exchange Module (E-CEM), developed at NRL, provides the Navy the capability to produce fuel stock (LNG, CNG, F-76, JP-5, etc.) at sea, or in remote locations.

According to NRL, the E-CEM has successfully demonstrated proof-of-concept for a simultaneous recovery process of carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) from seawater. The carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas recovered from the seawater as feedstock are catalytically converted to hydrocarbons in a second additional synthetic process step.

“A ship’s ability to produce a significant fraction of the battle group’s fuel for operations at sea could reduce the mean time between refueling, and increase the operational flexibility and time on station,” said Cmdr. Felice DiMascio.

“Reducing the logistics tail on fuel delivery with the potential to increase the Navy’s energy security and independence, with minimal impact on the environment, were key factors in the development of this program.”

Dr. Heather Willauer, research chemist at NRL said: “Building on the success of the first exchange module, we have scaled-up the carbon capture process to improve efficiency and substantially increase feedstock production.”

“Using a scaled-up, second generation E-CEM prototype, we will substantially increase CO2 and H2 production capable of producing up to one gallon of fuel per day, an increase nearly 40 times greater than with the earlier generation E-CEM.”

To accommodate increased feedstock production, NRL is also scaling up the catalyst system to synthesize fuel from CO2 and H2. Having fully realized the product distribution of hydrocarbons using a small plug flow chemical reactor, NRL has recently partnered with a commercial entity to test the catalyst using their large-scale chemical reactor.

“Basically we are optimizing both processes separately, CO2 and hydrogen production and recovery, and synthesis of hydrocarbons from CO2 and hydrogen,” Willauer said. “Since we will be producing enough feedstock in the near future, we envision integrating the two processes at our Key West facility to further evaluate how full-scale end-to-end production might evolve.”

At these scales, Willauer contends there will remain several issues to resolve, however, the team hopes to have the two processes operating at Key West by late 2016.