New Green Methanol Production
Lead Research Organisation:
Cardiff University
Department Name: Chemistry
Abstract
The aim is to exploit a recent discovery concerning a new catalytic route for methanol production based on using bio-renewable feedstocks as starting materials. This new process and associated catalysts has been protected by a patent filing. The key feature is that the process opens up a wholly new route for the manufacture of methanol which is a key commodity chemical. Funding is requested to complete patent exemplification and to ensure commercial exploitation can be achieved.
Planned Impact
The main beneficiaries of this research will initially be commercial companies who will benefit from the commercialization of the new catalysis and process technology that we are developing. However, subsequently Society as a whole will benefit from the improved products that will be made available from this commercialization.
The proposed research is aimed at optimizing and developing a new discovery relating to the manufacture of methanol based on the reaction of glycerol and other oxygenated molecules using a new catalyst. Our initial discovery has shown that we make catalysts for this new reaction. This low pressure route to methanol has never been seen before. The potential of our novel method of making methanol in this new way will be demonstrated using continuous flow reactors, and commercialization is first focused at one specific market of methanol producers. However, the benefits of the technology could be extended to a broad range of industrially-important higher oxygenate molecules that we can also produce using this technology. As such the expected range of applications is expected to be very broad encompassing fuels producers to petrochemicals and chemical intermediate companies as well as the pharmaceuticals sector. Additionally the new catalysts we will produce will have direct impact in the catalyst producer's sector.
The current world production of methanol is >40 M tonnes/annum. Consequently, this important new approach based on a bio-renewable feedstock has a huge market potential. We aim to interact with companies that manufacture or use methanol, as well as those companies that manufacture methanol synthesis catalysts to ensure commercialization. Our new patented method that has been discovered as part of cutting edge research as part of the EPSRC funded project EP/E006345/1 now provides a crucial breakthrough that will permit commercialization to be achieved.
In particular we envisage our catalyst technology will have the following key advantages:
1) Improved efficiency of the catalytic manufacture of methanol
Currently we were able to produce a catalyst that is effective for the synthesis of methanol at ambient pressure, and we believe this could be further improved by optimisation of the production process and catalyst formulation to increase the activity still further. Current methanol synthesis processes use very high pressure of ca. 70 bar and hence our discovery represents a major breakthrough. The increased efficiency in terms of energy, since a lot of energy is required for compression costs, means that our new process will offer a major advantage as energy costs escalate.
2) Novel use of a bio-renewable feedstock
Currently methanol is produced using fossil fuel reserves and our new approach will ustilise materials available as bio-renewables. This represents a step change in chemicals manufacture. We have identified that not only methanol but a wide range of C2 and C3 products can also be produced by appropriate choice of conditions. We aim to be able to tailor design catalysts for particular applications and this tuning will be identified using the experimental results obtained from the initial part of the work.
3) Environmental aspect
Traditional procedures for the production of methanol use fossil fuel reserves and also lead to large amounts of carbon dioxide, a green house gas, being emitted into the atmosphere. Our technology now offers a viable environmentally-friendly and resource-saving alternative to the traditional method.
The work will therefore have a major impact on the industrial sector, both in terms of companies that manufacture and supply heterogeneous catalysts as well as companies that use these heterogeneous catalysts in the manufacture of methanol, a major commodity chemical. The successful outcome of this research will enable a new way of making methanol to be commercially realized.
The proposed research is aimed at optimizing and developing a new discovery relating to the manufacture of methanol based on the reaction of glycerol and other oxygenated molecules using a new catalyst. Our initial discovery has shown that we make catalysts for this new reaction. This low pressure route to methanol has never been seen before. The potential of our novel method of making methanol in this new way will be demonstrated using continuous flow reactors, and commercialization is first focused at one specific market of methanol producers. However, the benefits of the technology could be extended to a broad range of industrially-important higher oxygenate molecules that we can also produce using this technology. As such the expected range of applications is expected to be very broad encompassing fuels producers to petrochemicals and chemical intermediate companies as well as the pharmaceuticals sector. Additionally the new catalysts we will produce will have direct impact in the catalyst producer's sector.
The current world production of methanol is >40 M tonnes/annum. Consequently, this important new approach based on a bio-renewable feedstock has a huge market potential. We aim to interact with companies that manufacture or use methanol, as well as those companies that manufacture methanol synthesis catalysts to ensure commercialization. Our new patented method that has been discovered as part of cutting edge research as part of the EPSRC funded project EP/E006345/1 now provides a crucial breakthrough that will permit commercialization to be achieved.
In particular we envisage our catalyst technology will have the following key advantages:
1) Improved efficiency of the catalytic manufacture of methanol
Currently we were able to produce a catalyst that is effective for the synthesis of methanol at ambient pressure, and we believe this could be further improved by optimisation of the production process and catalyst formulation to increase the activity still further. Current methanol synthesis processes use very high pressure of ca. 70 bar and hence our discovery represents a major breakthrough. The increased efficiency in terms of energy, since a lot of energy is required for compression costs, means that our new process will offer a major advantage as energy costs escalate.
2) Novel use of a bio-renewable feedstock
Currently methanol is produced using fossil fuel reserves and our new approach will ustilise materials available as bio-renewables. This represents a step change in chemicals manufacture. We have identified that not only methanol but a wide range of C2 and C3 products can also be produced by appropriate choice of conditions. We aim to be able to tailor design catalysts for particular applications and this tuning will be identified using the experimental results obtained from the initial part of the work.
3) Environmental aspect
Traditional procedures for the production of methanol use fossil fuel reserves and also lead to large amounts of carbon dioxide, a green house gas, being emitted into the atmosphere. Our technology now offers a viable environmentally-friendly and resource-saving alternative to the traditional method.
The work will therefore have a major impact on the industrial sector, both in terms of companies that manufacture and supply heterogeneous catalysts as well as companies that use these heterogeneous catalysts in the manufacture of methanol, a major commodity chemical. The successful outcome of this research will enable a new way of making methanol to be commercially realized.
| Description | We have discovered a new route to methanol that uses waste glycerol and water. This is new chemistry and opens up a new green way to make methanol a key chemical intermediate |
| Exploitation Route | This new chemistry provides a new route to methanol that can be used in the fuel and energy sectors |
| Sectors | Chemicals,Energy |
| URL | http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/cci/ |
| Description | We are starting to see how we can scale up the laboratory discovery. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
| Sector | Chemicals,Energy |
| Impact Types | Economic |