Isis eyes methanol from biodiesel byproducts
UK-based Isis Innovation, the technology transfer company for the University of Oxford, has announced that researchers in the University's Department of Chemistry have discovered a new way to produce methanol from an industrial waste chemical, glycerol. Presently, 90% of methanol is produced from natural gas, and this new process offers an alternative which does not rely on fossil fuels.
'We're turning a waste material, glycerol, directly into a very useful product - methanol,' Edman Tsang, an expert in the development of new catalyst materials, and the main inventor behind the new method, says.
'Around 350,000 tonnes of glycerol are 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,' Tsang adds.
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 1000C and 20 bar of pressure.
Glycerol is the major by-product of biodiesel and oleochemical production. For every 9 kg of vegetable oil processed, 1 kg of glycerol is produced. Although glycerol is used in foods and personal care products, there is no large-scale industrial demand for the chemical. Until now there has been no viable commercial process for glycerol's direct conversion to methanol.
'We're turning a waste material, glycerol, directly into a very useful product - methanol,' Edman Tsang, an expert in the development of new catalyst materials, and the main inventor behind the new method, says.
'Around 350,000 tonnes of glycerol are 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,' Tsang adds.
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 1000C and 20 bar of pressure.
Glycerol is the major by-product of biodiesel and oleochemical production. For every 9 kg of vegetable oil processed, 1 kg of glycerol is produced. Although glycerol is used in foods and personal care products, there is no large-scale industrial demand for the chemical. Until now there has been no viable commercial process for glycerol's direct conversion to methanol.
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