Title: BioGTL: A Potential Technique for Converting Methane to Methanol (Waste to Energy)
Abstract: Methane, the potential fuel, is a major contributor to the global warming chaos due to its heat capturing ability and its increasing release from anthropogenic routes, such as oil and coal mining, as a waste. Owing to technical and economic constraints the methane is flared at the sites, thus preventing the marketing and causing wastage of a potential energy resource. In 2017, for 220 million barrels of oil produced per day, 140 billion m3 of natural gas was flared per year according to the Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR) report by the World Bank. This enormous amount gas that is wasted can be captured and converted to energy (liquid fuels) through existing chemical and emerging biological routes. Due to the prominent disadvantages associated with chemical route such as energy intensiveness, inefficiency in yield, high-cost, etc., biological route for methane-to-methanol conversion is favourable, which can be operated at ambient temperature and pressure conditions. The methanotrophs, among various groups of methane utilizers, play the key role in biological methane (gas) to methanol (liquid) conversion (BioGTL). Besides, Bio-GTL (biological gas to liquid) would prove to be an economically viable technology for capturing the methane released at underrated diffused sites operated by small companies in remote areas. An efficiency (moles of methanol produced per mole methane consumed) of 80% for BioGTL has been reported in 2014. However, the scale-up of this interesting and highly potential technology has been a challenge and hence, demands attention and appropriate R&D measures.
Publication Year: 2019
Publication Date: 2019-10-10
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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