Scientists unscramble the mystery behind the methanol conversion process

Being one of the twenty most used substances in the chemical industry, methanol is used in the production of solvents, fuels, antifreeze, and common types of plastics.

Methanol was previously produced from methane in a large-scale conversion process that involved various steps under high pressure and temperature. This process consumed a lot of energy.

But in the 90s, a more direct method to produce methanol was discovered. The new technique even produced extra energy. However, scientists did not really understand the process. It was a kind of ‘black box’ into which they inserted methane, with a big chance that methanol would come out at the other end.

But two decades later, postdoctoral researcher Pieter Vanelderen from the Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven or University of Leuven) in Belgium, in collaboration with chemists from Stanford University, was able to figure out the mechanism behind the process.

The chemical reaction involves adding a specific substance known as a catalyst. For the direct conversion of methane into methanol, this catalyst is a zeolite with added iron.

“We have provided the first exact definition of what the iron atom looks like that is needed to convert methane into methanol at room temperature. Furthermore, we can describe why this conversion method is so successful,” explains Pieter Vanelderen.

This discovery may revolutionize the production of methanol and, by extension, all its derivatives that are used in everyday lives.

The scientists at Stanford are specialized in the use of enzymes as catalysts in chemical reactions, Vanelderen said. The Stanford team used methods that were initially developed to study iron-containing enzymes and was then able to take a ‘picture’ of what happens to the iron-containing zeolite during  the methane-to-methanol conversion process.

“This information allowed us to determine which specific iron atom was doing the work and to find its exact location in the zeolite,” Vanelderen added.

Scientists can now start imitating and optimizing the catalyst as they now know exactly what it looks like. This opens up quite a few possibilities for the future. For one thing, the production of the methanol needed to produce plastic will become a lot cheaper. The catalyst is also useful for the conversion of nitrogen oxides. It could be used, for instance, to clean the exhaust fumes of cars.

This study was coordinated by Professor Bert Sels and Professor Robert Schoonheydt from the KU Leuven Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, in collaboration with Professor Kristine Pierloot (KU Leuven) and Professor Edward Solomon at Stanford University. Benjamin Snyder, a graduate student at Stanford University, is co-lead author.