VATIS UPDATE Article

Scientists at Cardiff University, the United Kingdom, have discovered a new way of creating greener and cheaper fuel from methane. They have found a way of creating methanol using nanoparticles of gold to initiate a chemical reaction between methane, oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. It can be done in one stage and at temperatures no higher than 50 °C (122 °F). “It could become an alternative to petrol. It is also believed the new system of creating methanol could be used to create chemicals and plastics,” said Stuart Taylor, at Cardiff.

Traditionally, methanol is created by converting methane into hydrogen and carbon monoxide at high temperatures, then reassembling them in a different order in a second highly pressurised process. “The current two-stage ‘steam reforming’ process is very energy intensive, as it requires a lot of fuel to achieve high temperatures, but for over a century no-one has been able to come up with a better system,” explained Prof Taylor.

The discovery promises to be not only cheaper, but much more environmentally friendly, as it both reduces energy consumption and conserves dwindling stocks of natural gas. It also opens up the prospect for the first time of easily converting natural gas into methanol at the site where it is extracted, so that it can be piped as a liquid in normal atmospheric conditions. The team’s research has been published in journal Science.