Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators have revealed new details that explain how a highly selective catalyst converts methane, the main component of natural gas, to methanol, an easy-to-transport liquid fuel and feedstock for making plastics, paints, and other commodity products.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators have revealed new details that explain how a highly selective catalyst converts methane, the main component of natural gas, to methanol, an easy-to-transport liquid fuel and feedstock for making plastics, paints, and other commodity products. The findings could aid the design of even more efficient/selective catalysts to make methane conversion an economically viable and environmentally attractive alternative to venting or flaring “waste” gas.
As described in a paper appearing in Science, the team used theory-based models and simulations to identify the atomic-level rearrangements that take place during the reaction, and then conducted experiments to verify those details. The studies revealed three essential roles for water, working in conjunction with an economical cerium-oxide/copper-oxide catalyst, to bring about the conversion of methane to methanol with 70 percent selectivity while blocking unwanted side reactions.
“We knew from previous work that we’d developed a highly selective catalyst for the direct conversion of methane to methanol in the presence of water,” said Brookhaven Lab chemist Sanjaya Senanayake, who led the project. “But now, using advanced theoretical and experimental techniques, we’ve learned why it works so well.”
The findings could speed the development of catalysts that make use of methane escaping from gas and oil wells, where it is typically vented directly into the atmosphere or burned off.
Read more at DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory
Image: Brookhaven Lab and Stony Brook University (SBU) members of the research team. First row, left to right: Sanjaya Senanayake (Brookhaven), Mausumi Mahapatra (Brookhaven), Jose A Rodriguez (Brookhaven), Ping Liu (Brookhaven) and Wenjie Liao (SBU). Second row: Ivan Orozco (SBU), Ning Rui (Brookhaven), Zongyuan Liu (Brookhaven) and Erwei Huang (SBU). (Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory)
