Catalysis of Organic..

Kocal 443that capital investment could be reduced by as much as 50%. Most importantly, thisnew process could result in a net 17 trillion BTU/yr savings. Development of aprocess with further improved yields maintaining high selectivity will producegreater energy and economic savings. The validity of these estimates will need to bechecked as process development progresses.Table 3 lists the environmental benefits. Substantial reductions in oxide andVOC emissions will be realized upon commercializing such a process. Furthermore,development of a process with improved yields maintaining high selectivity willproduce greater energy and economic savings and further minimize pollutants.These benefits are a result of milder operating conditions and increased overallselectivity to methanol per unit methane converted (including utilities). It isimportant to note this hypothetical process is still a long way fromcommercialization and several technological breakthroughs in catalyst and processdesign will be required to realize these benefits. UOP is currently working ondeveloping a novel process for direct conversion of methane to methanol and hasbeen awarded a $5MM contract over 3 years by ATP/NIST (Award70NANB4H3041) to conduct the research.Table 3. Methane to Methanol: Calculated Reduction in Pollutantstechnology is commercialized in 2012)(assumingPollutant Reductions (lbs) 2005 2010 2015 2020Carbon (MMTCE/yr) N/A N/A 0.026 0.082Nitrogen Oxides (NOX) N/A N/A 405,463 1,269,365Sulfur Oxides (SOX) N/A N/A 360,238 1,127,782Carbon Monoxide (CO) N/A N/A 79,533 248,991Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCS) N/A N/A 8,811 27,584Particulates N/A N/A 6,628 20,749Other (million lbs) N/A N/A 130 407Stage 4 moves to the utilization of renewable resources. As technologyprogresses into this stage, the world’s energy will come from primarily renewableresources, such as solar, biomass, and thermo chemical. The desired fuel would behydrogen which is ultimately derived from water and not a hydrocarbon. Efficienthydrogen storage will also have to be developed for use by this time.Considerable research effort is being placed into the development of renewableresources. Although steady progress is being made in areas such as photovoltaics,there are numerous discoveries yet to be made. At this time, the cost of producingelectricity via electrolysis of water using photovoltaics is about $0.12/kWh. In orderto be competitive, this cost must be reduced substantially via improved efficiency ofthe overall system and reduced cost resulting from mass production.