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New Method Converts Greenhouse Gas Into Fuel
Scitech Daily ^ | OCTOBER 1, 2022 | By SÃO PAULO RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Posted on 10/04/2022 8:51:11 AM PDT by Red Badger

The conversion occurred at room temperature and pressure, which could allow methane, a potent greenhouse gas, to be utilized to make fuel.

The new method converts methane gas into liquid methanol. A team of researchers has successfully converted methane into methanol using light and scattered transition metals such as copper in a process known as photo-oxidation. The reaction was the best achieved to date for converting methane gas into liquid fuel at ambient temperature and pressure (25 °C and 1 bar, respectively), according to a study published in the journal Chemical Communications.

The term bar as a pressure unit comes from the Greek word meaning weight (baros). One bar equals 100,000 Pascals (100 kPa), close to the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level (101,325 Pa).

The study’s findings are a crucial step toward making natural gas accessible as a source of energy for the production of alternative fuels to gasoline and diesel. Despite the fact that natural gas is a fossil fuel, its conversion into methanol produces less carbon dioxide (CO2) than other liquid fuels in the same category.

Converting Methane Gas Into Liquid Methanol

The conversion took place under ambient temperature and pressure conditions, which could enable methane, a potent greenhouse gas, to be used to produce fuel. Credit: UFSCAR

Methanol is vital in biodiesel production and the chemical industry in Brazil, where it is used to synthesize a variety of products.

Furthermore, methane collection from the atmosphere is critical for mitigating the negative consequences of climate change since the gas has 25 times the potential to contribute to global warming as CO2, for example.

“There’s a great debate in the scientific community about the size of the planet’s methane reserves. According to some estimates, they may have double the energy potential of all other fossil fuels combined. In the transition to renewables, we’ll have to tap into all this methane at some point,” Marcos da Silva, first author of the article, told Agência FAPESP. Silva is a Ph.D. candidate in the Physics Department of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar).

The study was supported by FAPESP, the Higher Research Council (CAPES, an agency of the Ministry of Education), and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, an arm of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation).

According to Ivo Freitas Teixeira, a professor at UFSCar, Silva’s thesis advisor and the last author of the article, the photocatalyst used in the study was a key innovation. “Our group innovated significantly by oxidizing methane in a single stage,” he said. “In the chemical industry, this conversion occurs via the production of hydrogen and CO2 in at least two stages and under very high temperature and pressure conditions. Our success in obtaining methanol under mild conditions, while also expending less energy, is a major step forward.”

According to Teixeira, the results pave the way for future research into the use of solar energy for this conversion process, potentially reducing its environmental impact still further.

Photocatalysts

In the laboratory, the scientists synthesized crystalline carbon nitride in the form of polyheptazine imide (PHI), using non-noble or earth-abundant transition metals, especially copper, to produce active visible-light photocatalysts.

They then used the photocatalysts in methane oxidation reactions with hydrogen peroxide as an initiator. The copper-PHI catalyst generated a large volume of oxygenated liquid products, especially methanol (2,900 micromoles per gram of material, or µmol.g-1 in four hours).

“We discovered the best catalyst and other conditions essential to the chemical reaction, such as using a large amount of water and only a small amount of hydrogen peroxide, which is an oxidizing agent,” Teixeira said. “The next steps include understanding more about the active copper sites in the material and their role in the reaction. We also plan to use oxygen directly to produce hydrogen peroxide in the reaction itself. If successful, this should make the process even safer and economically viable.”

Another point the group will continue to investigate relates to copper. “We work with dispersed copper. When we wrote the article, we didn’t know whether we were dealing with isolated atoms or clusters. We now know they’re clusters,” he explained.

In the study, the scientists used pure methane, but in the future, they will extract the gas from renewables such as biomass.

According to the United Nations, methane has so far caused about 30% of global warming since the pre-industrial age. Methane emissions from human activity could be reduced by as much as 45% in the decade ahead, avoiding a rise of almost 0.3°C by 2045.

The strategy of converting methane into liquid fuel using a photocatalyst is new and not available commercially, but its potential in the near term is significant. “We began our research over four years ago. We now have far better results than those of Professor Hutchings and his group in 2017, which motivated our own research,” Teixeira said, referring to a study published in the journal Science by researchers affiliated with universities in the United States and the United Kingdom, and led by Graham Hutchings, a professor at Cardiff University in Wales.

References:

“Selective methane photooxidation into methanol under mild conditions promoted by highly dispersed Cu atoms on crystalline carbon nitrides” by Marcos A. R. da Silva, Jéssica C. Gil, Nadezda V. Tarakina, Gelson T. S. T. Silva, José B. G. Filho, Klaus Krambrock, Markus Antonietti, Caue Ribeiro and Ivo F. Teixeira, 31 May 2022, Chemical Communications. DOI: 10.1039/D2CC01757A

“Aqueous Au-Pd colloids catalyze selective CH4 oxidation to CH3OH with O2 under mild conditions” by Nishtha Agarwal, Simon J. Freakley, Rebecca U. McVicker, Sultan M. Althahban, Nikolaos Dimitratos, Qian He, David J. Morgan, Robert L. Jenkins, David J. Willock, Stuart H. Taylor, Christopher J. Kiely and Graham J. Hutchings, 7 September 2017, Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.aan6515


TOPICS: Business/Economy; History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: carbondioxide; co2; co2myths; ecoterrorism; ecoterrorists; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; methane
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To: Red Badger
I heat my home and water with methane (aka natural gas). I can generate electricity with it as well.
21 posted on 10/04/2022 10:50:27 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: NorthMountain
The characteristic smell is a mercaptan added to make the odorless hydrocarbon detectable by humans.

One of my college chemistry professors made the error of wearing his nice leather-soled Florsheim shoes in his lab. While in the lab, he managed to dribble some methyl mercaptan on the floor and stepped in it. The vent hoods in the lab carried off the smell. Not so when he got into his car to go home. The car suddenly smelled like a large pile of fresh dog poop. He realized the problem, drove his car over to the nearest trash can in the parking lot and dropped his Florsheim shoes into the trash can.

22 posted on 10/04/2022 10:57:10 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Myrddin

LOL!!! Those shoes would NEVER have been wearable. Good thing none of the stuff transferred to his floor mat or carpet.


23 posted on 10/04/2022 11:06:33 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: DevonD
Methanol is liquid so easier to store and higher density so less volume. Makes it a good fuel for transportation. Methanol has some serious draw backs such as corrosion.

Gasoline with ethyl alcohol such as at present is hell on small engines particularly 2 cycle engines. Methanol is far worse.

24 posted on 10/04/2022 12:11:43 PM PDT by cpdiii
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To: cpdiii
Gasoline with ethyl alcohol such as at present is hell on small engines particularly 2 cycle engines. Methanol is far worse.

I just spent almost $300 in parts and my own labor to repair damage done to my Harley Fat Bob and my wife's Piaggio BV500. The fuel pump was destroyed in the Fat Bob and the BV500 needed to have to hose between the fuel pump and pressure regulator/filter assembly replaced with fully submersible, ethanol insensitive fuel line. $40 for a 1 foot section. I needed about 3.5 inches and two high pressure hose clamps. The Harley got a new fuel pump, strainer, fuel filter and check-valve (high side to injectors) and a new tank seal and screw set.

25 posted on 10/04/2022 1:28:13 PM PDT by Myrddin
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