Haber+Sabatier+Bosch+LFTRs+ Oil shale = Clean energy independence

Speculation alert: This is by no means a complete analysis, but perhaps could be a starting point for one.

This discussion picks up where I left off from the posts titled The Mistake of 1937  and Limbaugh debate with guy in Philadephia.  What I add to this mix on this post is the mining of oil from shale by using LFTRs.

Why LFTR's?  Presumably, synthesizing hydrogen from electrolyzing water isn't quite as economical as a solution as it would be by getting the hydrogen from hydrocarbons.  But that leaves you with carbon dioxide.  That's where the Bosch reaction can deal with the carbon dioxide while making water

The overall reaction is as follows:

CO2(g) + 2 H2(g) → C(s) + 2 H2O(g)

But we need a source of hydrogen and that's where the oil shale comes in.  Oil shale is abundant in America, but there are objections about the additional carbon dioxide.  The Bosch reaction will use the hydrogen obtained from the oil from shale and eliminate the carbon dioxide and replace it with elemental graphite.  But first, you would use the LFTRs to heat the kerogen in oil shale and that's how you get the oil.  Once you've got the oil, you then have to get the hydrogen out of it.  You can use the reformation process of the oil so you can get the hydrogen.   This will give you the carbon dioxide and hydrogen mentioned above.

It may also be useful to use the Sabatier reaction in order to convert carbon dioxide into methane.  Methane can be reformed into hydrogen and you've got hydrogen and carbon dioxide again.  Eventually, all of the hydrogen will have been removed leaving you will excess hydrogen, plus water, plus graphite.  There should be no carbon dixode as waste.

The presumption here is that there will be an excess of hydrogen which will be combined with atmospheric nitrogen in order to make ammonia.  This is the goal- to eliminate carbon and to replace it with nitrogen.

Ammonia can be then be shipped as opposed to shipping hydrogen gas.  Ammonia can be manufactured using the Haber process.  Ammonia's advantage besides being easier to ship is that it is also easier to get the hydrogen back out of it at the point of sale.  This eliminates the need for extensive new infrastructure in order to ship hydrogen.  Also, the nitrogen can go back into the atmosphere, which makes it a closed loop.

The advantage to using LFTRs is that the energy will be cheaper and cleaner than conventional nuclear power.  It is also more compact, meaning that it can be moved around to where the energy is needed.  The presumption here is that the cheaper energy will make the entire process cost competitive with conventional oil.

The downside is that the Bosch process will require excess energy, meaning energy losses.  However, since LFTR's are claimed to be price competitive with coal and the use of fuel cells is much more energy efficient, the speculation is that the costs can be recouped.

The ultimate benefit would be energy independence that will be relatively clean and abundant.  No carbon dioxide and the nuclear waste is minimized by a factor of 300 so that it can be managed relatively easily and because it will decay in 300 years.