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, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @01:25PM (4 children)
So this means our cars will soon be Ethanol-fueled?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @02:29PM
For $1 an hour to push it from behind with his bird scooter rental.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @03:01PM (1 child)
They already are. Most gas has 10% of ethanol in it unless you want to pay extra.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday February 22 2019, @07:09PM
Whoosh! [soylentnews.org]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 22 2019, @07:30PM
So this means our cars will soon be Ethanol-fueled?
It'll manage to not blindly smash into walls, but only about once a month?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @02:50PM (1 child)
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol [wikipedia.org]
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_fuel [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 22 2019, @07:37PM
This is not race car fuel.
TFA said GREEN fuel. Isn't race car fuel transparent?
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(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 22 2019, @04:36PM (1 child)
The obvious application for this is to build solar power plants, preferably concentrating solar (mirrors and salt tank) and then construct some sort of value-adding facility right next to it to take advantage of the power. Desalinization, or this methanol to ethanol conversion plant, maybe even some sort of clean industrial incinerator.
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(Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday February 23 2019, @02:08PM
In the long term maybe.
In the medium term its another pathway in the methanol economy.
Most methanol comes from extensive processing of natgas today, although in theory its an option for coal to liquid via making "towne gas" as an intermediary.
methanol is a horrible general public joe6pack fuel, very toxic, etc. Cheap conversion to ethanol makes it useful, or more useful, as a general public fuel.
You can do a lot of cool chemical plant stuff with methanol as a feedstock; its also a pretty good liquid fuel for electrical fuel cells.
We've "always" had a cheap and easy methanol to diesel-alike, its some ester I forget, but diesel cars not so cool outside Europe (and especially post-VW psuedo-scandal)
So... "MeOH to EtOH cheap and easy" is kinda a plug to connect the current and proposed methanol economy to very realistic general public liq fuel for vehicles and whatever.
We have plenty of interesting alternative energy transports for many decades; we've burned up the simple ones and now its a puzzler to implement the trickier ones in a form that doesn't involve moron end users killing an entire city block via misuse.
Your cogeneration plant proposal is realistic and likely, although in summary the more popular use will be as an expensive stack at a refinery that is one of the last processing steps for general purpose liq fuel production. Essentially your mass produced E15 mogas will "come from natgas" instead of "come from corn farmers". How this will impact the political landscape WRT E15 only existing as a mandated product BECAUSE of corn farmers who are soon to be cut out of the loop is interesting to consider.
I just looooove researching investing in the energy sector, its a cool and interesting corner of capitalist technology, darn near more fun than stuff closely related to EE/CS which is too much like work. F google I'm sick enough of their bullshit they cause at work; energy sector is relaxing and invigorating to invest in as a spare time hobby.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Friday February 22 2019, @04:38PM
I've been banking on the electric car replacing the gasoline powered car. But the combustion engine could get a new lease on life with an economical way to create fuel from biomass.
From personal experience, the all electric car is vastly superior, with the one big exception of the limited range and/or long recharge times. They're quieter, smoother, more reliable, and much lower maintenance. Oh, and more economical.
I find the old habits of gasoline car ownership still alive. It's been almost a reflex to take mental notes of gas station prices as I commute, so I know who has the best deal on gas today. Find myself still thinking about routine maintenance that's no longer applicable, such as the oil change, and while at it, the radiator and transmission fluid, and maybe the air filter. With the electric, all that just goes away. There's still the power steering and A/C, but those are not belt driven, and so are lower maintenance. Possibly the top source of leakage in an A/C system is the seal on the shaft of the compressor, which has to be present so that the compressor can be driven by belt. In an all-electric, the A/C system has an internal electric motor, no more shaft with high maintenance, leak prone seals.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @04:59PM (3 children)
Butanol has even higher energy density than ethanol,
and it also doesn't suffer the historical stigma of a speak-easy on every street the way ethanol does.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @05:49PM (1 child)
True, but the majority of butanol used right now comes from the same source as gasoline or diesel.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @06:19PM
Not until one of my neighbours buys a butanol powered car it doesn't!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday February 23 2019, @02:16PM
Its toxic and smelly so the existing infrastructure of open tanks and pumping hoses has to go away into something more like CNG/propane airtight stuff.
Given the toxicity I would not want to breathe anywhere near the exhaust of vehicles without working cat convs.
Using yuckier fuels means we're going back to the good old days of leaded gasoline and "that stuff gonna rot yer brainz". Eco-friendly fuel is a luxury good of a rich petroleum based civilization; not a poor post-petroleum civ. We're going back to putting stuff in the tank that kills people, not eco unicorn glitter that saves the earth.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday February 22 2019, @05:08PM (5 children)
Not at toxic as Carbon Dioxide is.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(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.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(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.
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(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!"
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(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday February 22 2019, @05:11PM (1 child)
The energy density of the liquid phase is all that really concerns economists, bean counters as well as Harry The Homeowner.
Recall that smaller carbon chains have proportionally more hydrogens, and therefore my potential chemical energy per molecule.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @07:19PM
isn't methanol half-assed oxidized methan?
a good logo would represent methan as a whole apple whilst methanol would be a apple with a bite taken out of it ...
anyways, the "good" thing about having half oxidized methan is that it "falls together", that is that methan, being a gas turns liquid by adding one oxygen?
'tis a curious thing in the universe: having a bunch of hyrogen and combining it either with carbon, which when pure is a solid brick, or oxygen, which when pure is a gas goes in reverse:
adding the "solid" carbon to the hydrogen makes a gas (until you make longer chains) but adding oxygen to hydrogen turns the whole combo into a liquid.
this whole oxygen thingy is a good "compressor" eh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @05:13PM (1 child)
There are people who will pay $100/lb for coffee beans that have been pooped out by weasels [wikipedia.org]. Now we're going to have people spending $100/liter on whiskey made from converted cow farts.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 23 2019, @09:57AM
"Why is this whiskey so expensive?"
"It's from a really old fart."
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.