Potential for methanol: Carbon Monoxide

Quick note: Long time viewers may notice that our diesel numbers and thus numbers based on our diesel numbers have changed. This is the result of our mistakenly entering the "low" value of BTU for petroleum based diesel. This means that we jumped a gap of approx 9,000 BTU when comparing that value to the "high" value BTU of methanol. To clarify, one BTU is the energy necessary to raise 1 lb water 1 degree Fahrenheit. "high" value refers to this water in liquid state, "low" value refers to the water in vapor state. Our apologies for this rookie-level mistake.

1 mol CO = 28.01g

1 mol CH₃OH = 32.042g

28.01g CO / 32.042g CH₃OH = .874165 CO in CH₃OH

Every year the USA consumes 137 billon gallons of gasoline

137 bil gal gasoline x 1.16 delta efficiency/BTU ratio = 158.9 bil gal CH₃OH / year

1 gal CH₃OH x 4.78 kg CH₃OH / gal CH₃OH = 4.78 kg/gal CH₃OH

158,900,000,000 gal x 4.78 kg / gal = 759,540,000,000 kg CH₃OH

.874165 kg CO / kg CH₃OH x 759,540,000,000 kg CH₃OH = 663.96 bil kg CO

Every year the USA consumes over 59 billion gallons of diesel

59.05 bil gal diesel x 2.20 delta efficiency/BTU ratio = 129.91 bil gal CH₃OH / year

129,910,000,000 gal x 4.78 kg / gal = 620.97 bil kg CH₃OH

.874165 kg CO / kg CH₃OH x 620,969,800,000 kg CH₃OH = 542.83 bil kg CO

663.98 bil kg CO + 542.83 bil kg CO = 1.207 Trillion kg CO total

http://web.archive.org/web/20060615133520/http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr12.pdf

Reference to Gasification Study Above (733.74 tons):

63,500 lb carbon yields 96.5% or 61,271.3 lb carbon (CO, CO2, CH4)

323,705,079,358 kg carbon required per year

.965 = 335,479,707,699 kg carbon

335,479,707,699 kg carbon minimum required

.504 avg carbon in biomass = 733.74 mil (English) tons

Though not factored into calculations above, the remaining 3.5 % of carbon found in the heavy oil (hydrocarbons) left behind from the gasification process may be further utilized by super-critical water reformation. The following link offers an excellent explanation of this process and is also found on our biomass page: http://web.archive.org/web/20060615133520/http://media.fsec.ucf.edu/

Carbon Monoxide can be obtained from a variety of sources, however, it may still be considered the limiting reagent of thme 2H₂+ CO = CH₃OH reaction: http://www.epa.gov/air/urbanair/co/what1.html . Please feel free to examine http://www.caloric.com/cms/upload/pdf/calcor.pdf and imagine how this same process could be used with gasification of Biomass and Coal Also, many of our industrial sites that produce CO today are mandated to convert this emission into CO₂. Sometimes this can be accomplished with the reaction: (CO + H₂O => CO₂+ H₂). At the very minimum, we this country is in no shortage of CO₂to the extent that we need to devote our CO supply to make more CO₂ (sarcasm). One can imagine the prospects at hand to capture enough CO for making sufficient quantities of methanol (CH₃OH). Engine efficiency study performed by the EPA demonstrating 43% efficiency: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/presentations/sae-2002-01-2743.pdf.