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Methanol—a colorless liquid that can be made from agricultural waste—has long been touted as a green alternative to fossil fuels. But it’s toxic and only has half the energy as the same volume of gasoline. Now, researchers report they’ve created a potentially cheap way to use sunlight to convert methanol to ethanol, a more popular alternative fuel that’s less harmful and carries more energy.
The new report is “great work” says Zhongmin Liu, a chemist at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China who was not involved with the research. If the process can be optimized and scaled up, he says, “It has the potential to change the world.”
The notion of converting methanol to ethanol isn’t new. Companies already have a trio of chemical processes that do so. But these require adding heat, pressure, and toxic additives, such as carbon monoxide. Companies can also make ethanol directly by fermenting corn kernels or sugarcane. But growing those crops requires precious farmland that could otherwise grow food. Researchers and companies have also come up with ways to convert agricultural wastes into ethanol. So far, however, these have proved too costly to be competitive.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday February 22 2019, @05:08PM (5 children)
Not at toxic as Carbon Dioxide is.
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(Score: 4, Informative) by HiThere on Friday February 22 2019, @05:33PM (4 children)
Sorry, but Methane is worse than Carbon Dioxide. And it degrades over around a decade into Carbon Dioxide. Methanol is basically Methane, but it degrades much more rapidly.
That's as a atmospheric pollutant. As a "have a swig of this" ingredient, it's the thing that caused cheap whiskey to make people blind, where Carbon Dioxide is what makes the bubbles in soda drinks.
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(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 22 2019, @07:32PM (3 children)
Methane: There's a reason we flare that stuff off....
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 22 2019, @07:39PM (2 children)
If someone says it's toxic, the magical response to that is to reply that it is All Natural.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 22 2019, @08:02PM (1 child)
If someone says it's toxic, the magical response to that is to reply that it is All Natural.
Yep, just like cyanide!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 22 2019, @08:07PM
You only give them cyanide if they say: "I learned to write SQL by reading SQL Antipatterns!"
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.