IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v3y2012i1d10.1038_ncomms2053.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A non-syn-gas catalytic route to methanol production

Author

Listed:
  • Cheng-Tar Wu

    (Wolfson Catalysis Centre, University of Oxford)

  • Kai Man Kerry Yu

    (Wolfson Catalysis Centre, University of Oxford)

  • Fenglin Liao

    (Wolfson Catalysis Centre, University of Oxford)

  • Neil Young

    (University of Oxford)

  • Peter Nellist

    (University of Oxford)

  • Andrew Dent

    (Diamond Light Source Ltd, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus)

  • Anna Kroner

    (Diamond Light Source Ltd, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus)

  • Shik Chi Edman Tsang

    (Wolfson Catalysis Centre, University of Oxford)

Abstract

Methanol is an important platform molecule for chemical synthesis and its high energy density also renders it a good candidate as a cleaner transportation fuel. At present, methanol is manufactured from natural gas via the indirect syn-gas route. Here we show that ethylene glycol, a versatile chemical derived from biomass or fossil fuels, can be directly converted to methanol in hydrogen with high selectivity over a Pd/Fe2O3 co-precipitated catalyst. This opens up a possibility for diversification in natural resources for energy-starved countries. The working catalyst contains extremely small 'PdFe' clusters and metal adatoms on defective iron oxide to give the required metal-support interaction for the novel synthesis.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheng-Tar Wu & Kai Man Kerry Yu & Fenglin Liao & Neil Young & Peter Nellist & Andrew Dent & Anna Kroner & Shik Chi Edman Tsang, 2012. "A non-syn-gas catalytic route to methanol production," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 3(1), pages 1-8, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:3:y:2012:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms2053
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2053
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2053
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms2053?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jianghao Zhang & Wenda Hu & Binbin Qian & Houqian Li & Berlin Sudduth & Mark Engelhard & Lian Zhang & Jianzhi Hu & Junming Sun & Changbin Zhang & Hong He & Yong Wang, 2023. "Tuning hydrogenation chemistry of Pd-based heterogeneous catalysts by introducing homogeneous-like ligands," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:3:y:2012:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms2053. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.