Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Alain Goeppert (Author), G. K. Surya Prakash (Author) "Ever since our distant forerunners managed to light fire for providing heat, means for cooking and many essential purposes, humankind's life and survival is inherently..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A very well written standard work, related to the field of the properties, production, and present and future use of methanol as a direct or indirect energy source." (International Journal of Environment and Pollution, April 2009)

"…a well-written review of the energy situation in the global context…a valuable addition to the literature." (CHOICE, October 2006)

"...exceptionally clear and engaging. For anyone interested in the subjects of energy, fossil fuels, and energy solutions, this book will be a valuable resource...worth reading and considering in detail." (Chemical & Engineering News, October 2, 2006)

"..I am pleased to recommend most enthusiastically this inexpensive, forward-looking, and inspiring book to anyone concerned with the major challenge of future energy and environmental problems--a central issue for our society." (The Chemical Educator, May/June 2006)

Product Description

In this masterpiece, the renowned chemistry Nobel Laureate, George A. Olah and his colleagues discuss in a clear and readily accessible manner the use of methanol as a viable alternative to our diminishing fossil fuel resources. They look at the pros and cons of our current main energy sources, namely oil and natural gas, and varied renewable energies, and new ways to overcome obstacles.

Following an introduction, Olah, Goeppert and Prakash look at the interrelation of fuels and energy, and at the extent of our non-renewable fossil fuel resources. Despite the diminishing reserve and global warming, the authors point out the continuing need for hydrocarbons and their products. They also discuss the envisioned hydrogen economy and its significant shortcomings. The main section then focuses on the methanol economy, including the conversion carbon dioxide from industrial exhausts (such as flue gases from fossil fuel burning power plants) and carbon dioxide contained in the atmoshere into convenient liquid methanol for fuel uses (notably in fuel cells) and as a raw material for hydrocarbons. The book is rounded off with a glimpse into the future.

A forward-looking and inspiring work regarding the major challenges of future energy and environmental problems.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-VCH; 1 edition (March 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3527312757
• ISBN-13: 978-3527312757
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #164,088 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring book about our current energy challenges and a possible solution, April 4, 2006

By	Kate Smith (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

The increasing world population and the declining availability of cheap oil threaten to plunge the world into a global energy crisis. Concerns over our reliance on oil and gas and the impact of fossil fuels on the environment have escalated significantly in recent years. This book explores current energy sources (oil, natural gas, coal, atomic energy) as well as renewable alternative energies (wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, etc), the interrelation of fuels and energy, and the extent of non-renewable fossil fuel resources. Besides the need to find alternates to diminishing fossil fuels, the authors outline the need for hydrocarbons and their products way into the future despite depleting reserves and global warming, and examine the envisioned hydrogen economy and its significant shortcomings.It illustrates how methanol can be used as a convenient liquid fuel and a raw material for hydrocarbons and their products. The needed methanol can be made from a variety of sources including carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas). This timely book demonstrates how carbon dioxide from industrial exhausts (and eventually even atmospheric carbon dioxide) can be converted into safe liquid methanol. I thought that it was an insightful and inspiring guide to meeting the world's future energy needs while preserving the environment.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an excellent job covering alternative renewable energy sources, November 24, 2006

By	B. Pankuch (Cranford, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Olah (1994 Nobel laureate carbocation chemistry, director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute) and his coauthors do an excellent job going over fossil fuel(coal, natural gas, oil) resources, how close we are to running out of each, the vast number of uses for these resources, and the likelihood of climate change due to their burning. It is assumed that in the future we will have abundant energy available from nuclear and alternative sources. Methanol would then be one of the prime carriers of this energy, and an alternate source for all petrochemicals.

They also cover alternative renewable energy sources, compare using hydrogen versus methanol as a carrier of energy from new renewable energy sources and nuclear energy plants. The authors do a thorough job pointing out the enormous use of hydrocarbons throughout the industrial world for a huge array of products. Not only do we need vast new renewable sources of energy we also need to be able to use this energy to change new carbon sources into useful products. The new source of carbon, methanol from CO2 and H2! Olah, et al shows in great detail how methanol can be changed chemically into the precursors for just about anything and at very high efficiencies. We would use energy from nuclear and new renewable energy sources directly where we can, such as powering our factories and homes' electrical systems. We would use some of this new energy to change CO2 from emissions and hydrogen from electrolysis of water, into methanol to run our cars, trucks, etc., and provide feedstock for all the products now produced from petroleum. Note that methanol formed this way adds no new CO2 since CO2 from the surroundings is used to make it. This is very similar to using ethanol produced from corn or other biomass, except it involves more chemistry.

The new process involves using electrochemical or photochemical reduction of CO2, which forms methanol, formic acid and formaldehyde, CO2 + 2H2 -> CH3OH with additional products which are also changed to CH3OH,
HCHO + HCO2H -> CH3OH + CO2
They don't give a lot of details, because they have a patent pending on the process.

In the interim, while we are developing and building alternative renewable energy sources, we can change coal, natural gas, biomass, etc., into methanol. This is already done to a small degree and existing infrastructure for gas and oil can be used with small adjustments. The authors also compare using hydrogen and methanol, as storage and transport media.

It was a surprise to me that there is more hydrogen in a liter of liquid methanol (98.8 g of hydrogen) than in a liter of liquid hydrogen (70.8 g at -253?C), water for comparison has 111g of hydrogen. Methanol would store and transport much more easily than liquid hydrogen.

The first sources of CO2 would be exhaust gas from utilities and big factories, which generate a lot of CO2, hydrogen would come from water being electrolyzed, CO2 + 3H2 -> CH3OH + H2O. Then as our CO2 capture methods get better it would be captured directly from the air. Anyone in the world would with access to energy, would then have a source for a vast array of chemicals! Note that if CO2 becomes a useful commodity people and nations will compete to pull it out of the atmosphere, and prevent it from being released since it has value. This has much greater appeal than other proposals such as sequestering of the CO2. A lot would depend on how efficient the process is. It would be useful if they would give some information on this, but Olah replied to me that `...we have of course extensive patent coverage filed for and in process. For obvious reasons in our book we could not go into any details.

The driving force for the Methanol Economy is new energy from nuclear and alternative renewable energy sources, which we don't have yet, replacing hydrocarbons as fuel. Olah, et al has great confidence that the many problems facing these new energy sources are solvable. The authors are quite negative on the safety of hydrogen, but don't seem to see a major non solvable problem with nuclear. Nuclear as we know certainly has its problems, and most of us are wary of nuclear. Scientific American had an article (December 2005 issue) on the latest nuclear plant design which uses 99% of the fuel rather than 1% in current plants. It would also have proportionally less radioactive waste, with a much shorter halflife. One of the hookers is using two separate liquid Na (at 600?C) loops as a coolant. Not a minor engineering feat. Another recent Scientific American article Sept 2006, instead sings the praises for 3rd generation nukes with improved technology, but with the same problems we currently have.

A fuel cell is being developed which uses methanol directly.
Anode: CH3OH + H2O -> CO2 + 6H+ + 6e-
Cathode: 1.5O2 + 6H+ + 6e- -> 3H2O
Overall: CH3OH + 1.5O2 -> CO2 + 2H2O
It has a theoretical efficiency of 97%, so far 34% has been achieved, while using H2 and O2 in a fuel cell has a theoretical efficiency of 83%. Of course methanol produces CO2 (which would eventually be used as feedstock) as compared to H2 which just produces water, a great advantage.

Anytime we contemplate huge installations for generating energy, whether they are nuclear or renewable we face the problem of transporting the energy to the user. Methanol, since it can use existing infrastructure of pipelines, trucks, gas stations with few changes would appear to be far cheaper than hydrogen. A July 2006 article in Scientific American `A Power Grid for the Hydrogen Economy' pointed out that our nation's electrical grid is experiencing problems and a possible solution would be to create a new national grid which would carry electricity from distant plants-renewable, nuclear, coal fired etc., by a superconductor cooled by liquid hydrogen. You would have the electricity almost resistance free (about 10% is currently lost in transmission) and the hydrogen for chemical uses. The economics of all these proposals is very hazy.

Some further food for thought is a 1998 study that indicates that the unsubsidized price of gasoline was between $6- 15/gal. A number of other studies place it at $3-11. If their methodology is close to correct then the current subsidy is much higher now, and if this subsidy were available to alternative energy sources they would be much more competitive.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting book , March 31, 2006

By	Steven Matzen (New-York) - See all my reviews

Very interesting book showing our utterly dependence on fossil fuel and the consequences of this dependence including resource depletion and global warming. The authors offer an answer to these problems by the installation of a so-called methanol economy which will use liquid methanol as a convenient energy carrier and raw material for hydrocarbons and all the products derived today from petroleum or natural gas (plastics, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, etc..).