The Oxford University’s Department of Chemistry has discovered a new method of producing methanol from glycerol Waste. According to the research team, ninety percent of methanol is currently produced from natural gas and the new process wont need to rely on any fossil fuels.

“We’re turning a waste material - glycerol - directly into a very useful product - methanol,” said Professor Edman Tsang, an expert in the development of new catalyst materials, and the main inventor behind the new method. “Around 350,000 tons of glycerol is incinerated in the US each year, and converting this to methanol gives you a portable store of energy, and potentially an economically viable new biofuel business.”

“Essentially, this is a way of getting methanol ‘for free’ from biomass,” said Tsang.  “Methanol itself is useful either as a fuel on its own or in biodiesel manufacture. It is also used widely in industrial chemistry.”

The advantage of the new process is that it is direct - not requiring multiple costly processing steps - and it works at a low temperature and low pressure.

“In industry, temperature costs money, but high pressure is even more expensive. This process operates under readily achievable, mild conditions of 100 degrees C and 20 bar of pressure.”

There is no large-scale industrial demand for glycerol right now, so utilizing this process would not only use something that would otherwise be wasted, it will help save energy in the production phase.

Isis Innovation has patented the technology, and will be working with Prof Tsang to commercialize the technology.

Source: Biofuel Review
Photo: Courtesy of Odd Bod via Flickr Creative Commons License