Japanese partners synthesise methanol and para-xylene from CO2
Osaka University’s Graduate School of Engineering Science, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Mitsui Chemicals have announced that they have successfully conducted demonstration tests of methanol and para-xylene synthesis using CO2 as a feedstock.
Efforts to combat global warming are progressing, with the aim of achieving a carbon-neutral society by 2050. Against that backdrop, this project seeks to develop technology for the effective use of C02 emitted by factories and the like.
The project partners recently carried out a test in which they produced para-xylene using methanol synthesised from C02 and hydrogen, conducting this at the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO)’s R&D/demonstration base for carbon recycling at Osaki-Kamijima, Hiroshima.
This project has seen the establishment of the component technologies, culminating in the demonstration of a technology for synthesising para-xylene from methanol that has itself been synthesised from CO2. Compared with production methods that use petroleum-based resources as feedstocks, the para-xylene obtained in this project affords a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions.
In addition to conventional applications as an ingredient in chemical production, methanol is now beginning to be used in ships and more as a fuel with a lower environmental impact.
Para-xylene, meanwhile, is a raw material utilised in purified terephthalic acid, and thus is also widely used in the manufacture of polyester resins for clothing and plastic bottles.
Replacing conventional petroleum-based resources with CO2 gathered via direct air capture – as well as via factory emissions – and converting it into methanol and para-xylene will lead to both lower emissions and the fixation of CO2, say the partners.
The tests were conducted as part of the Research of Selective Synthesis Technology of Chemical Products for Carbon Recycling project, which has been selected for inclusion in the Development of Technologies for Carbon Recycling and Next-Generation Thermal Power Generation project being run by NEDO.
