This has, in turn, led researchers to develop unique methods of converting methane, which accounts for 70-90% of natural gas, into more useful products, such as a chemicals and fuels, in a simple, economical, and low-carbon way.
In a research study published today in Nature Catalysis, the team led by researchers from the Cardiff Catalysis Institute has actually demonstrated, for the time, the direct conversion of methane into methanol and acetic acid using a gold driver.
Up until now, this has actually just been achieved through indirect paths that include numerous steps that are extremely energy consuming and very pricey.
To attain the creation of methanol and acetic acid the team responded methane with oxygen in the existence of a catalyst made from gold and the zeolite ZSM-5.
By analyzing the driver utilizing high-powered electron microscopy, it was exposed that the active catalyst did not contain gold atoms or clusters, however rather gold nanoparticles– incredibly small particles in between 3 to 15 nanometres in size that can display significantly various physical and chemical residential or commercial properties to their larger product equivalents.
The production of methanol utilizing this driver was expected; nevertheless, the novelty of the brand-new approach came in the production of acetic acid.
Acetic acid is a common industrial chemical with big amounts used to make items such as ink for fabric printing, dyes, photographic chemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, rubber, and plastics.
Methanol, meanwhile, is typically used as a precursor to many other product chemicals, along with a biofuel.
Regardless of the popular inertness of the valuable metal gold, pioneering research study by researchers at the Cardiff Catalysis Institute has demonstrated that it is, in reality, a incredibly effective and trustworthy driver that can be utilized efficiently in many essential commercial processes.
Co-author of the research study Professor Graham Hutchings, Regius Professor of Chemistry from the Cardiff Catalysis Institute, stated: “The oxidation of methane, the main component of natural gas, to selectively form oxygenated chemical intermediates utilizing molecular oxygen has actually been a long-standing grand difficulty in catalysis.
” We have actually effectively shown this for the very first time in this research study, offering an important primary step towards the creation of important fuels and chemicals in a economical and simple method.”
Refrence: “Au-ZSM-5 catalyses the selective oxidation of CH4 to CH3OH and CH3COOH utilizing O2” by Guodong Qi, Thomas E. Davies, Ali Nasrallah, Mala A. Sainna, Alexander G. R. Howe, Richard J. Lewis, Matthew Quesne, C. Richard A. Catlow, David J. Willock, Qian He, Donald Bethell, Mark J. Howard, Barry A. Murrer, Brian Harrison, Christopher J. Kiely, Xingling Zhao, Feng Deng, Jun Xu and Graham J. Hutchings, 6 January 2022, Nature Catalysis.DOI: 10.1038/ s41929-021-00725-8.
A basic, low-priced method of directly transforming gas into useful chemicals and fuels, utilizing the precious metal gold as a key component, has actually been proposed by researchers.
Cardiff University scientists show the suitability of gold as a driver to produce methanol and acetic acid from the methane in gas.
A basic, low-priced technique of straight converting gas into useful chemicals and fuels, utilizing the valuable metal gold as a crucial active ingredient, has been proposed by researchers at Cardiff University in cooperation with scientists at Lehigh University, USA and the National Centre for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, China.
Whilst natural gas is one of the greenest nonrenewable fuel sources, it still discharges dangerous greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when burned.
