Methane Oxidation to Methanol in Water

Methane oxidation by aqueous osmium tetroxide and sodium periodate: inhibition of methanol oxidation by methane.

Methanol promotes atmospheric methane oxidation by methanotrophic cultures and soils.

Two methanotrophic bacteria, Methylobacter albus BG8 and Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b, oxidized atmospheric methane during batch growth on methanol. Methane consumption was rapidly and substantially diminished (95% over 9 days) when washed cell suspensions were incubated without methanol in the presence of atmospheric methane (1.7 ppm). Methanotrophic activity was stimulated after methanol (...

Methanol and Hydrogen from Methane, Water, and Light

Introduction Research on the conversion of natural gas (methane) has been an ongoing effort at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) for over 20 years. A long-term goal of our research team is to explore novel pathways for the direct conversion of methane to liquid fuels, chemicals, and intermediates. Scheme 1: Proposed pathway for the photocatalytic conversion of methane and water L...

Response to Comment on “Selective anaerobic oxidation of methane enables direct synthesis of methanol”

Periana argues that the stepwise reaction of methane with water is thermodynamically unfavorable and therefore impractical. We reply by presenting an in-depth thermodynamic analysis of each step in the process and show that the surface concentrations of the reactants and products as well as the stabilizing effect of additional water molecules, as discussed in the original paper, fully support t...

Selective Oxidation of Methane to Methanol at Low Temperatures with Molecular Inspired Solid Catalysts

Methane is an abundant material found world-wide, particularly in form of natural gas. The ability to directly convert methane to methanol in economically satisfactory yields is an important goal of the oil and gas industry. Current technologies or catalytic systems for a direct utilization suffer from low selectivities owing to overoxidation to carbon dioxide. These systems typically involve h...