Scientists make fuel from oxygen in air:

Scientists make fuel from oxygen in air:

Scientists have found a way to produce methanol using oxygen in the air.

Researchers from Cardiff University in the U.K. have discovered the process to produce methanol from methane through simple catalysis that allows methanol production at low temperatures using oxygen and hydrogen peroxide.

What is Methanol:

• Methanol is currently produced by breaking down natural gas at high temperatures into hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide before reassembling them by the process known as ‘steam reforming’ and ‘methanol synthesis.
• Methanol is also known as methyl alcohol among others, is a chemical with the formula CH₃OH (often abbreviated MeOH).
• Methanol acquired the name “wood alcohol” because it was once produced chiefly as a by-product of the destructive distillation of wood.
• Today, industrial methanol is produced in a catalytic process directly from carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
• Methanol is the simplest alcohol being only a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group.
• It is a light, colourless, volatile, flammable liquid with a distinctive odour very similar to that of ethanol (drinking alcohol). However, unlike ethanol, methanol is highly toxic and unfit for consumption.
• Methanol is produced naturally in the anaerobic metabolism of many varieties of bacteria, and is commonly present in small amounts in the environment. As a result, the atmosphere contains a small amount of methanol vapour. But in only a few days, atmospheric methanol is oxidized by sunlight to produce carbon dioxide and water.

Uses of Methanol:

• At room temperature, it is a polar liquid and is used as an antifreeze, solvent, fuel and denaturant for ethanol.
• It is also used for producing biodiesel via transesterification reaction.

Implications of findings of new process of methanol production:

• The findings, published in the journal Science, have major implications for cleaner, greener industrial processes worldwide.
• The quest to find a more efficient way of producing methanol is a hundred years old. The new process uses oxygen — effectively a ‘free’ product in the air— and combines it with hydrogen peroxide at mild temperatures which require less energy.
• It has major implications for the preservation of natural gas reserves as fossil fuel stocks dwindle across the world.
• At present global natural gas production is about 2.4 billion tonnes per annum and 4% of this is flared into the atmosphere — roughly 100 million tonnes. Production of Methanol gas for commercial use will save carbon dioxide emissions.