METHANOL/BIOMETHANOL

Jordan Kuchta

What is Methanol? It is the simplest alcohol, and is a light, volatile,

colorless, flammable, liquid with a distinctive odor very similar to, but slightly sweeter than, ehtanol

At room temperature, it is a polar liquid, and is used as an antifreeze, solvent, fuel, and as a denaturant for ethanol

Due to its toxic properties, methanol is used as a denaturant additive for ethanol manufactured for industrial uses — this addition of methanol exempts industrial ethanol from liquor excise taxation

How is it Made? Methanol (CH3OH) is conventionally

produced from methane (natural gas) Purified methane (CH4 ) is cracked with

steam in a steam reformer using a nickel catalyst at high temperature (>500°C)

The methane and steam splits into syngas, a mix of H2, CO2 and CO

The syngas is cooled and compressed to around 100 bar, with the separate components reacting in a synthesis reactor to produce methanol

Uses for Methanol It is also used for producing biodiesel via

transesterification reaction Methanol burns in air, forming carbon

dioxide and water Basic organic material that is used to

make formaldehyde, acitic acid, methylic halid, DMC

It is used as a cheap organic material and solvent in pesticides, medicine, dye

More Uses Pure methanol is required by rule to be

used in champcars, Monster Trucks, USAC sprint cars, and other dirt track series

Methanol has been used as the primary fuel ingredient since the late 1940s, in the power plants for radio control, control line, and free flight airplanes

Advantages Methanol by itself is not likely to cause environmental harm at

levels normally found in the environment Effects of methanol on human health and the environment depend

on how much methanol is present and the length and frequency of exposure

Methanol burns at lower temperatures than petrol, which reduces the heat lost from the exhaust

Effects also depend on the health of a person or the condition of the environment when exposure occurs

It does not contribute to air pollution It is less toxic to plants and animals than conventional gasoline

and diesel It is less flammable and safer to handle than gasoline It can be made from renewable resources and is more cost-

efficient than current day fuels being used

Disadvntages Methanol can contribute to the

formation of photochemical smog when it reacts with other volatile organic carbon substances in air.

Exposure can occur when people use certain paint strippers, aerosol spray paints, wall paints, windshield wiper fluid, and small engine fuel

When using coal in the production of methanol, that will release sulfur dioxide into the air, as a greenhouse gas

Production Today, methanol is produced in the U.S. for mostly nonfuel

usage There are eighteen U.S. methanol production plants, with a

total annual capacity of over 2.6 billion gallons Today most of the methanol in the U.S. is produced from

natural gas and shifting to methanol as our major transportation fuel requires greatly upping production

The biggest potential source of methanol in the U.S. is coal A major power plant in Tampa, Florida, built under the

auspices of the Department of Energy, has proven the feasibility of converting coal to syn-gas on a very large scale

In Kingsport, Tennessee, a plant participating in the Department of Energy's Clean Coal Technology Program combines both processes, for clean mass production of methanol from coal at under $0.50 a gallon

Production With fuels normally being hydrocarbons,

the carbon burns in oxygen to form CO2 and / or CO with hydrogen burning to form water vapour (there can also be hydrocarbons, and NOx and SOx in emissions)

If produced from a renewable resource, the fuel just returns the carbon back into the atmosphere, but methanol has until now been almost all fossil fuel generated

Biomethanol Biomethanol is identical to methanol,

which is the simplest (and cheapest) of the alcohols

It is a versatile chemical that can produce a range of polymers and fuels

Its most immediate fuel use is to produce bio-methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) to increase octane levels in petrol to prevent 'knocking'

More Bioethanol It has been successfully produced from

feedstocks like wood waste, grass, algae, black liquor from pulping processes, and methane gas from landfills and animal waste

It has the potential to become the least expensive of the carbon neutral biofuels

Using biomethanol would need only slight changes to filling stations and car engines – unlike hydrogen, which would need a completely new infrastructure

Advantages Longer term, biomethanol is a good alternative to ethanol

for replacing petrol in automotive engines Nobel Prize winner George Olah has recommended an

entire methanol economy instead of the much-promoted hydrogen economy.

Biomethanol – like biodiesel – should be produced without taking up the agricultural land that is increasingly needed to feed the world's population (a quarter of grain crops grown in the USA are already reportedly being diverted from food to produce fuel for cars, which is simply unsustainable)

"Biomethanol's versatility is attractive to countries looking for security of fuel supplies."

The flame speed (speed of expansion of a flame front during combustion) is higher, so combustion efficiency is higher and with better tolerance to exhaust gas recirculation

Disadvantages The disadvantages basically consist of

the same negative effects as methanol

Works Cited http://www.chemicals-technology.com/

features/feature77667/   http://www.scientificamerican.com/

article.cfm?id=radical-energy-solutions http://www.chemicals-technology.com/fea

tures/feature77667/ http://www.epa.gov/chemfact/f_methan.t

xt