Scientists make fuel from oxygen in air

Scientists make fuel from oxygen in air

Scientists have found a way to produce methanol — an important chemical often used as fuel in vehicles — using oxygen in the air, an advance that may lead to cleaner, greener industrial processes worldwide.

Methanol is currently produced by breaking down natural gas at high temperatures into hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide before reassembling them — expensive and energy-intensive processes known as ‘steam reforming’ and ‘methanol synthesis.’

Simple catalysis

However, researchers from Cardiff University in the U.K. have discovered they can produce methanol from methane through simple catalysis that allows methanol production at low temperatures using oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. At present global natural gas production is about 2.4 billion tonnes per annum and 4% of this is flared into the atmosphere — roughly 100 million tonnes.

1. Carbon Capture Technology in INDIA

India will explore the possibility of introducing technologies for capturing carbon dioxide emitted while burning coal and other fossil fuels, the country’s Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar has said at an international conference on Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) in Alabama.

Commercial uses

A lot of advanced research in the area, of late, has been focussing on capturing carbon dioxide emissions from sources like coal-fired power plants, to either reuse or store it so it will not enter the atmosphere. CO2 has commercial and industrial uses, particularly for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) in depleting oil fields. Carbon dioxide has the ability to change the properties of oil and make it easier to extract.

The International Energy Agency’s Green House Gas Research and Development initiative organises the annual Post Combustion Carbon Conference, which is currently in session in Birmingham, in the State of Alabama.

2. Vegetable Farms in JORDAN

Jordan, a water-poor country that is 90% desert, has launched a project to turn its sand dunes into farming land to produce food using sun and sea water.

King Abdullah II and Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon recently attended a ceremony to mark the official opening of the “Sahara Forest Project” near the southern port city of Aqaba.

130 tonnes of food

In the first stage, the project aims to produce up to 130 tonnes of organic vegetables per year from an area the size of four football pitches.

It will use solar panels to provide power and include outdoor planting space, two saltwater-cooled greenhouses, a water desalination unit and salt ponds for salt production.

The project, whose funders include Norway and the European Union, is to be expanded from three hectares to around 200 hectares of desert.

“Jordan has a lot of sunlight, it has a lot of desert, it has sea water, it has carbon dioxide. That is what we need to produce food, water and renewable energy.”