CO2toMethanol.com

Study Says Methanol Safer for the Environment than Gasoline; Methanol Video to Premiere

The Malcolm Pirnie study prepared for the Methanol Institute (MI) and titled, "Evaluation of the Fate and Transport of Methanol in the Environment," reviewed the chemical and physical properties of methanol and then examined the fate of methanol in the environment under several potential release scenarios, such as a surface water spill or leaks from an underground storage tank. The researchers also conducted an extensive review of the literature on methanol toxicity, as well as methanol spill remediation and treatment technologies.

"Our study on the fate and transport of methanol in the environment showed that, relative to gasoline and its constituents like benzene, methanol will likely have far fewer adverse impacts on the environment," said Dr. Michael C. Kavanaugh, P.E., vice president of Malcolm Pirnie. "This is due to the inherent properties of the chemical: it is capable of completely mixing with water; degrades quickly in the atmosphere; and -- most importantly -- will rapidly biodegrade in surface waters and underground. Generally, methanol is less toxic to humans than gasoline, and is neither mutagenic nor carcinogenic. When you add all of this up, the overall threat to human health and the environment of methanol is likely to be far less than conventional gasoline, under equivalent release or spill scenarios."

Methanol, a widely used industrial chemical since the 1800s, is considered by the world's major automakers to be an ideal hydrogen carrier for fuel cell vehicles. MI has estimated that by 2010, a fleet of two million fuel cell vehicles could demand over 880 million gallons of methanol per year, creating a need for expansion of the methanol refueling infrastructure. Given the expected increase in methanol production, transportation, storage and use, potential for accidental releases to the environment releases. Compared to crude oil or gasoline, the study found that methanol is a safer and more environmentally benign fuel, so that releases would be far less damaging to the environment.

The researchers found that a large methanol spill into a surface water would have some immediate impacts to the biota in the direct vicinity of the spill. However, in contrast to a crude oil ocean spill, methanol rapidly dissipates into the environment, reaching low concentration levels where biodegration will occur quickly. Under another scenario, if methanol were to leak from an underground storage tank, rapid biodegradation is expected to occur under both aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen) subsurface conditions. Hazards from gasoline leaks are greater than those of methanol, because gasoline and many of its constituents biodegrade slower and will persist longer in the environment.

Based on an extensive literature review, the study reports that methanol is neither mutagenic nor carcinogenic. The evidence shows that acute toxic effects on humans from methanol only occur at high doses. The U.S. Department of Energy considers gasoline to be "overall more hazardous to human health than methanol."

"We all know that methanol fuel cell vehicles will offer significant air quality and global warming benefits," said MI President and CEO John Lynn. "This study proves that the environmental benefits of using methanol extend well beyond the fuel cell vehicle. Compared to conventional gasoline, methanol is less polluting to water, less toxic, does not cause cancer, and is much safer to use. Methanol really is the clear alternative."

The Methanol Institute has prepared a 12-minute video presentation titled, "The Clear Alternative: Methanol Fuel Cell Vehicles and the Environment." Produced by the Public Interest Video Network, the video includes interviews with: Dr. Ferdinand Panik of DaimlerChrysler; Jason Mark of the Union of Concerned Scientists; Lois Epstein of the Environmental Defense Fund; and Jim Larkins of Georgetown University. The video features footage of DaimlerChrysler's methanol fuel cell vehicle, NECAR 3, and highlights the use of methanol at the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington, DC, to accelerate the biodegradation of nitrogen prior to discharge into the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Both the report and the video are available from the Methanol Institute by calling 1-888-275-0768. Registration information for MI's February 4^th and 5^th "The Road to Fuel Cell Vehicles" conference is also available by calling this toll-free phone number. Contact: Bailey Condrey, MI, 1-888-275-0768.

What do you think about converting CO2 to Methanol?
The Pedrick-Kocol carbon dioxide to methanol conversion process will help the U.S. become energy independent! Please visit: www.CO2toMethanol.com to learn more about this amazing breakthrough!

"Recycling CO2 into Methanol (or dimethyl ether) and, through this into useful fuels and synthetic hydrocarbons and products, will not only help to alleviate the question of our diminishing fossil fuel resources, but at the same time help to mitigate global warming caused at least in part by man-made greenhouse gases." Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy, 2006, p. 8, by George A. Olah (winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry), Alain Goeppert, G.K. Surya Prakash. Ladies and Gentlemen, CO2 to Methanol conversion offers huge potential for humanity! Please note that Mr. Olah and Mr. Prakash received a U.S. Patent on October 27, 2009 for converting carbon dioxide to methanol: "Efficient and selective chemical recycling of carbon dioxide to methanol, dimethyl ether and derived products."

CO2toMethanol.com is the world's first website to sell methanol made from carbon dioxide! We also seek to finance CO2toMethanol.com M85 fueling stations throughout the United States and Mexico via USMEXenergy.com Founder/CEO John M. Kocol's Harvard Master's Thesis: "Federal Reserve Expansion in Mexico." CO2toMethanol.com was founded April 18, 2009 (coal2oil.com has been in business since September 2005) which was a day after the historic "game changer" CO2 to Methanol conversion breakthrough at the Singapore Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN).

Courtesy ScienceDaily:

Carbon Dioxide Transformed Into Methanol

ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2009) — Scientists at Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have succeeded in unlocking the potential of carbon dioxide – a common greenhouse gas – by converting it into a more useful product.

In the international chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, the IBN researchers report that by using organocatalysts, they activated carbon dioxide in a mild and non-toxic process to produce methanol, a widely used industrial feedstock and clean-burning biofuel.

Organocatalysts are catalysts that are comprised of non-metallic elements found in organic compounds. NHCs such as IMes (1,3-bis-(2,4,6 trimethylphenyl)imidazolylidene) are a form of organocatalysts that are stable and easily stored. They do not contain toxic heavy metals and can be produced easily without high costs.

The scientists made carbon dioxide react by using N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), a novel organocatalyst. In contrast to heavy metal catalysts that contain toxic and unstable components, NHCs are stable, even in the presence of oxygen. Hence, the reaction with NHCs and carbon dioxide can take place under mild conditions in dry air.

The IBN scientists showed that only a small amount of NHC is required to induce carbon dioxide activity in a reaction. "NHCs have shown tremendous potential for activating and fixing carbon dioxide. Our work can contribute towards transforming excess carbon dioxide in the environment into useful products such as methanol," said Siti Nurhanna Riduan, IBN Senior Lab Officer, who is also pursuing her Ph.D. under the Scientific Staff Development Award at IBN, one of the research institutes of Singapore's A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research).

Hydrosilane, a combination of silica and hydrogen, is added to the NHC-activated carbon dioxide, and the product of this reaction is transformed into methanol by adding water through hydrolysis.

Yugen Zhang, Ph.D., IBN Team Leader and Principal Research Scientist, explained, "Hydrosilane provides hydrogen, which bonds with carbon dioxide in a reduction reaction. This carbon dioxide reduction is efficiently catalyzed by NHCs even at room temperature. Methanol can be easily obtained from the product of the carbon dioxide reaction. Our previous research on NHCs has demonstrated their multiple applications as powerful antioxidants to fight degenerative diseases, and as effective catalysts to transform sugars into an alternative energy source. We have now shown that NHCs can also be applied successfully to the conversion of carbon dioxide into methanol, helping to unleash the potential of this highly abundant gas."

Previous attempts to reduce carbon dioxide to more useful products have required more energy input and a much longer reaction time. They also require transition metal catalysts, which are both unstable in oxygen and expensive. Ongoing research at IBN aims to find cheap alternatives for the hydrosilane reagent so that the production of methanol can be even more cost-effective for mass industrial production.

"At IBN, we are innovating effective methods of generating clean energy using green chemistry and nanotechnology. In the face of environmental pollution, global warming and increasing demands on diminishing fossil fuel resources, we hope to provide a viable alternative energy option for industry, and effective sequestration and conversion of carbon dioxide," said IBN Executive Director. Jackie Y. Ying, Ph.D.

Journal reference:

Siti Nurhanna Riduan, Yugen Zhang, Jackie Y. Ying. Conversion of Carbon Dioxide into Methanol with Silanes over N-Heterocyclic Carbene Catalysts. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Volume 48 Issue 18, Pages 3322 - 3325; Published Online: 31 Mar 2009 DOI: 10.1002/anie.20080658

Adapted from materials provided by Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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According to Gregory Dolan of the Methanol Institute, for methanol to become widely used in the U.S., Congress should pass the Open Fuel Standard Act.

Jesse A. Hamilton

on July 18, 2008 6:03 PM |Permalink|Comments (5)

"On Tuesday, independent Sen. Joe Lieberman will stand up with a senator from each party to advocate their new Open Fuel Standard Act. Lieberman, Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Ken Salazar, D-Colo., are introducing the bill, which will demand large percentages of new vehicles be equipped to use alternative fuels.

Half of new automobiles by 2012 would have to roll off the assembly line as "flex fuel vehicles warranted to operate on gasoline, ethanol, and methanol, or be warranted to operate on biodiesel." By 2015, it would be 80 percent.

The lawmakers contend that such a bill would help break America free of reliance on the international oil market."

Ladies and gentleman, this bill was introduced 2 years ago! Please call your Congressman or Congresswoman and call President Obama at the White House at 202-456-1111, and tell them that you agree with John M. Kocol's idea that because of the BP oil spill, now's the time to replace our petroleum based economy with a methanol based economy by supporting the Open Fuel Standard Act with an amendment excluding ethanol.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The methanol economy is a suggested future economy in which methanol replaces fossil fuels as a means of energy storage, fuel and raw material for synthetic hydrocarbons and their products. It offers an alternative to the proposed hydrogen economy or ethanol economy.

Since the 1990s Nobel prize winner George A. Olah started to advocate the methanol economy and in 2006 he and two co-authors (G.K. Surya Prakash and Alain Goeppert) published a book around this theme. In these publications, they summarize the state of our fossil fuel and alternative energy sources, their availability and limitations before suggesting a new approach in the so called methanol economy.

Methanol is a fuel for heat engines and fuel cells. Due to its high octane rating it can be used directly as a fuel in flex-fuel cars (including hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles) using existing internal combustion engines (ICE). Methanol can also be used as a fuel in fuel cells, either directly in Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC) or indirectly after conversion into hydrogen by reforming.

Methanol is a liquid under normal conditions, allowing it to be stored, transported and dispensed easily, much like gasoline and diesel fuel is currently. It can also be readily transformed by dehydration into dimethyl ether, a diesel fuel substitute with a cetane number of 55.

Methanol is already used today on a large scale (about 37 million tonnes per year) as a raw material to produce numerous chemical products and materials. In addition, it can be readily converted in the methanol to olefin (MTO) process into ethylene and propylene, which can be used to produce synthetic hydrocarbons and their products, currently obtained from oil and natural gas.

Methanol can be efficiently produced from a wide variety of sources including still abundant fossil fuels (natural gas, coal, oil shale, tar sands, etc.), but also agricultural products and municipal waste, wood and varied biomass. More importantly, it can also be made from chemical recycling of carbon dioxide. Initially the major source will be the CO₂ rich flue gases of fossil fuel burning power plants or exhaust of cement and other factories. In the longer range however, considering diminishing fossil fuel resources and the effect of their utilization on earth's atmosphere, even the low concentration of atmospheric CO₂ itself could be captured and recycled via methanol, thus supplementing nature’s own photosynthetic cycle. Efficient new absorbents to capture atmospheric CO₂ are being developed, mimicking plant life’s ability. Chemical recycling of CO₂ to new fuels and materials could thus become feasible, making them renewable on the human timescale.

One m³ of methanol at ambient pressure and temperature contains 1.660 Nm³ of hydrogen (H₂) compared to liquid hydrogen; one m³ of liquid hydrogen (LH2) at -253°C contains 788 Nm³ of hydrogen (H₂).
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Reviews from Amazon for "Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy."

Review

"In my opinion the authors have eminently achieved their goal, and I am pleased to recommend most enthusiastically this inexpensive, forward-looking, and inspiring book to anyone concerned with the major challenge of future energy and environmental problems - a central issue for our society." The Chemical Educator

"...a topical book, which challenges the important questions of this century. This book will contribute to the intense discussion to find the right answers. Some questions have been answered forward-looking."
Angewandte Chemie I.E.

"A lucidly written, attractively produced book this constitutes one of the best introductions - presented in the readable style of a definitive New Yorker magazine article...To all who care about alternative sources of energy and of chemical building blocks for the future this book is an invaluable guide." ChemPhysChem

"The book presents the reader with an analysis of energy history, an analysis of the status quo and a description of the methanol thesis. It is a book that should appeal to science historians, chemists and chemical engineers alike." Chemistry World

"... an interesting and thought-provoking book..."
Chemistry & Industry

"Throughout, the text and arguments presented are exceptionally clear and engaging. For anyone interested in the subjects of energy, fossil fuels, alternative fuels, and energy solutions, this book will be a valuable resource." Chemical & Engineering News

"When I first picked up this book, it looked technical, possibly of interest only to specialists. But then I began reading. Throughout, the text and arguments presented are exceptionally clear and engaging. For anyone interested in the subjects of energy, fossil fuels, alternative fuels, and energy solutions, this book will be a valuable resource." www.pubs.acs.org

"...The book is rounded off with a glimps into the future."
Metall

Product Description

The world is currently consuming about 85 million barrels of oil a day, and about two-thirds as much natural gas equivalent, both derived from non-renewable natural sources. In the foreseeable future, our energy needs will come from any available alternate source. Methanol is one such viable alternative, and also offers a convenient solution for efficient energy storage on a large scale.

In this updated and enlarged edition, renowned chemists discuss in a clear and readily accessible manner the pros and cons of humankind's current main energy sources, while providing new ways to overcome obstacles.

Following an introduction, the authors look at the interrelationship of fuels and energy, and at the extent of our non-renewable fossil fuels. They also discuss the hydrogen economy and its significant shortcomings. The main focus is on the conversion of CO2 from industrial as well as natural sources into liquid methanol and related DME, a diesel fuel substitute that can replace LNG and LPG. The book is rounded off with an optimistic look at future possibilities.

A forward-looking and inspiring work that vividly illustrates potential solutions to our energy and environmental problems.

About the Author

Born in 1927 in Budapest, Hungary, George A. Olah obtained his doctorate at the Technical University of Budapest, and is now a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Institute at the University of Southern California. He has received numerous awards and recognitions worldwide, including memberships in various academies of science and 12 honorary degrees. He has some 1,400 scientific papers, 20 books and more than 140 patents to his name. In 1994, Prof Olah was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discoveries.

Alain Goeppert was born in 1974 in Strasbourg, France. After obtaining his diploma in chemistry from the University Robert Schuman in Strasbourg, he received his engineering degree from the Fachhochschule Aalen, Germany. He then returned to Strasbourg to study the reactivity of alkanes in strong acid systems under the direction of Prof Jean Sommer at the Université Louis Pasteur, earning his PhD in 2002. He then joined the groups of Professors George A. Olah and G. K. Surya Prakash at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. Dr. Goeppert's current research is focused on the transformation of methane and CO2 into more valuable products and CO2 capture technologies.

Currently a Professor and Olah Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry and Scientific Co-Director at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute at USC, G. K. Surya Prakash was born in 1953 in Bangalore, India. After gaining his bachelor and master degrees from India he obtained his PhD from the University of Southern California under the direction of Prof Olah in 1978. Professor Prakash has close to 600 scientific papers, 9 books and 25 patents to his name, and has received many accolades, including two American Chemical Society National Awards. His primary research interests are in superacid, hydrocarbon, synthetic organic and organofluorine chemistry, energy and catalysis areas.