Scientists at Cardiff University and an international collaborative team have developed a more environmentally friendly method for producing methanol, a key component of fuels, plastics and pharmaceuticals. Using a highly active catalyst, the process converts oxygen and natural gas methane into methanol at room temperature, without the need for external energy sources such as light or electricity.

This breakthrough builds on the Cardiff team’s efforts to move away from expensive and energy-intensive processes by developing new catalytic methods together with industry and promoting the use of catalysis as a sustainable technology for the 21st century.

Their findings were published in a paper titled “H2-Reduced Phosphomolybdate Promotes Aerobic Oxidation of Methane to Methanol at Room Temperature.” Nature Catalysis magazineIt represents an important step towards cleaner and environmentally friendly production of methanol, and if methanol is developed further, it can also be used in industrial processes. World.

Professor Graham Hutchings, professor of chemistry at Cardiff University and co-author of the paper, said: “The discovery of new and effective catalysts for the synthesis of methanol from methane is critical to providing new pathways for the modern chemical industry.”

The research is the result of international collaboration between the Max Planck Center for the Fundamentals of Heterogeneous Catalysis, the recently established Net Zero Innovation Institute at Cardiff University and institutions abroad.

Working in state-of-the-art laboratories at Cardiff University’s Translational Research Centre, the Cardiff team shared their expertise in catalyst design and advanced characterization techniques, which play a fundamental role in understanding how a catalyst works and what its lifespan might be like. elongated. .

Co-author Dr. D., an Electrocatalysis Research Fellow at the university’s Net Zero Innovation Institute. Andrea Folli added: “This discovery could be an important step towards sustainable methanol-based fuel economy, which uses large amounts of methane as a feedstock.

“It also makes it possible to create a circular economy with the inclusion of the critically important greenhouse gas. “The global warming potential of methane gas is 25 times that of carbon dioxide, so this is an important step towards net zero emissions by 2050.”