METHANOL

CAS NUMBER: 67-56-1
RTECS NUMBER: PC1400000
UN NUMBER: 1230 (Guide 131)
EC Number: 200-659-6

APPLICATIONS

Methanol is a type of alcohol made primarily from natural gas. 
Methanol is a base material in acetic acid and formaldehyde, and in recent years it is also increasingly being used in ethylene and propylene. 
Mixing methanol with substances like these enables it to be used as an intermediate material to make literally thousands of methanol and methanol derivative products used in practically every aspect of our lives. 
Methanol and its derivative products such as ascetic acid and formaldehyde created via chemical reactions are used as base materials in acrylic plastic; synthetic fabrics and fibers used to make clothing; adhesives, paint, and plywood used in construction; and as a chemical agent in pharmaceuticals and agrichemicals. 
Methanol's endless myriad applications have made methanol ubiquitous in our lives and throughout society.
Methanol is a versatile feedstock for the chemicals industry.
The largest scale applications in terms of volume are processing into formaldehyde, which is further treated to form resins, glues and various plastics and for the production of acetic acid which is essentially used for the production of polyester fibres and PET plastics.
In recent years, the significance of methanol as an energy source has constantly increased. 
In petrol, methanol increases the octane number either in the form of a direct additive or as a component of MTBE (methyl-tertiary-butyl-ether), improving combustion qualities and reducing emissions. 
Particularly in China, methanol is processed to form DME (di-methyl-ether) used as a substitute for liquefied gas. 
Likewise in China, the processing of methanol into olefins has recently been implemented on a large scale: in the production of ethylene and propylene, new value added chains are unfolding for methanol as a feedstock, for instance in producing polyethylene, polypropylene and glycols.

The Uses of Methanol

-Formaldehyde, acetic acid, methyl tert-butylether

Methanol is primarily converted to formaldehyde, which is widely used in many areas, especially polymers. 
The conversion entails oxidation:
Acetic acid can be produced from methanol.
Methanol and isobutene are combined to give methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE). 
MTBE is a major octane booster in gasoline.
Condensation of methanol to produce hydrocarbons and even aromatic systems is the basis of several technologies related to gas to liquids. 
These include methanol-to-hydrocarbons (MtH), methanol to gasoline (MtG), methanol to olefins (MtO), and methanol to propylene (MtP). 
These conversions are catalyzed by zeolites as heterogeneous catalysts. 
The MtG process was once commercialized at Motunui in New Zealand.

-Gasoline additive

The European Fuel Quality Directive allows fuel producers to blend up to 3% methanol, with an equal amount of cosolvent, with gasoline sold in Europe. 
China uses more than 4.5 billion liters of methanol per year as a transportation fuel in low level blends for conventional vehicles, and high level blends in vehicles designed for methanol fuels.

-Other chemicals

Methanol is the precursor to most simple methylamines, methyl halides, and methyl ethers. 
Methyl esters are produced from methanol, including the transesterification of fats and production of biodiesel via transesterification.
Niche and potential uses
Energy carrier
Methanol is a promising energy carrier because, as a liquid, it is easier to store than hydrogen and natural gas. 
Methanol's energy density is however low reflecting the fact that it represents partially combusted methane. 
Methanol's energy density is 15.6 MJ/L, whereas ethanol's is 24 and gasoline's is 33 MJ/L.

-Further advantages for methanol is its ready biodegradability and low environmental toxicity. 
Methanol does not persist in either aerobic (oxygen-present) or anaerobic (oxygen-absent) environments. 
The half-life for methanol in groundwater is just one to seven days, while many common gasoline components have half-lives in the hundreds of days (such as benzene at 10–730 days). 
Since methanol is miscible with water and biodegradable, Methanol is unlikely to accumulate in groundwater, surface water, air or soil.

Fuel

Methanol is occasionally used to fuel internal combustion engines. 
Methanol burns forming carbon dioxide and water:
One problem with high concentrations of methanol in fuel is that alcohols corrode some metals, particularly aluminium. 
Methanol fuel has been proposed for ground transportation. 
The chief advantage of a methanol economy is that it could be adapted to gasoline internal combustion engines with minimum modification to the engines and to the infrastructure that delivers and stores liquid fuel. 
Methanol's energy density is however only half that of gasoline, meaning that twice the volume of methanol would be required.[citation needed]
Methanol is an alternative fuel for ships that helps the shipping industry meet increasingly strict emissions regulations. 
Methanol significantly reduces emissions of sulphur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter. 
Methanol can be used with high efficiency in marine diesel engines after minor modifications using a small amount of pilot fuel (Dual fuel).
In China, methanol fuels industrial boilers, which are used extensively to generate heat and steam for various industrial applications and residential heating. 
Methanol's use is displacing coal, which is under pressure from increasingly stringent environmental regulations.
Direct-methanol fuel cells are unique in their low temperature, atmospheric pressure operation, which lets them be greatly miniaturized.
This, combined with the relatively easy and safe storage and handling of methanol, may open the possibility of fuel cell-powered consumer electronics, such as laptop computers and mobile phones.
Methanol is also a widely used fuel in camping and boating stoves. 
Methanol burns well in an unpressurized burner, so alcohol stoves are often very simple, sometimes little more than a cup to hold fuel. 
This lack of complexity makes them a favorite of hikers who spend extended time in the wilderness. 
Similarly, the alcohol can be gelled to reduce risk of leaking or spilling, as with the brand "Sterno".
Methanol is mixed with water and injected into high performance diesel and gasoline engines for an increase of power and a decrease in intake air temperature in a process known as water methanol injection.
Methanol is used as a denaturant for ethanol, the product being known as "denatured alcohol" or "methylated spirit". 
This was commonly used during the Prohibition to discourage consumption of bootlegged liquor, and ended up causing several deaths.
These types of practices are now illegal in the United States, being considered homicide.
Methanol is used as a solvent and as an antifreeze in pipelines and windshield washer fluid. 
Methanol was used as an automobile coolant antifreeze in the early 1900s. 
As of May 2018, methanol was banned in the EU for use in windscreen washing or defrosting due to its risk of human consumption as a result of 2012 Czech Republic methanol poisonings.
In some wastewater treatment plants, a small amount of methanol is added to wastewater to provide a carbon food source for the denitrifying bacteria, which convert nitrates to nitrogen gas and reduce the nitrification of sensitive aquifers.
Methanol is used as a destaining agent in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

PROPERTIES OF METHANOL

Formula: CH4O / CH3OH
Molecular mass: 32.0
Boiling point: 65°C
Melting point: -98°C
Relative density (water = 1): 0.79
Solubility in water: miscible
Vapour pressure, kPa at 20°C: 12.9
Relative vapour density (air = 1): 1.1
Relative density of the vapour/air-mixture at 20°C (air = 1): 1.01
Flash point: 9°C c.c.
Auto-ignition temperature: 440°C
Explosive limits, vol% in air: 6-50
Octanol/water partition coefficient as log Pow: -0.74
Viscosity: 0.544 mPa at 25°C 

DESCRIPTION

Methanol, also known as methyl alcohol, amongst other names, is a chemical and the simplest alcohol, with the formula CH3OH (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated MeOH).
Methanol is a colourless liquid that boils at 64.96 °C (148.93 °F) and solidifies at −93.9 °C (−137 °F). 
Methanol forms explosive mixtures with air and burns with a nonluminous flame. It is completely miscible in water. 
Methanol has an odour that is similar to ethyl alcohol, the intoxicant of alcoholic beverages, but is a dangerous poison; many cases of blindness or death have been caused by drinking mixtures containing it. 
Methanol is a light, volatile, colourless, flammable liquid with a distinctive alcoholic odour similar to that of ethanol (potable alcohol).
A polar solvent, methanol acquired the name wood alcohol because Methanol was once produced chiefly by the destructive distillation of wood. 
Today, methanol is mainly produced industrially by hydrogenation of carbon monoxide.
Methanol consists of a methyl group linked to a polar hydroxyl group.
With more than 20 million tons produced annually, Methanol is used as a precursor to other commodity chemicals, including formaldehyde, acetic acid, methyl tert-butyl ether, methyl benzoate, anisole, peroxyacids, as well as a host of more specialised chemicals.
Methanol appears as a colorless fairly volatile liquid with a faintly sweet pungent odor like that of ethyl alcohol. 
Methanol Completely mixes with water. 
The vapors are slightly heavier than air and may travel some distance to a source of ignition and flash back. 
Any accumulation of Methanol vapors in confined spaces, such as buildings or sewers, may explode if ignited. 
Methanol is Used to make chemicals, to remove water from automotive and aviation fuels, as a solvent for paints and plastics, and as an ingredient in a wide variety of products.
Methanol is the primary alcohol that is the simplest aliphatic alcohol, comprising a methyl and an alcohol group. 
Methanol has a role as an amphiprotic solvent, a fuel, a human metabolite, an Escherichia coli metabolite, a mouse metabolite and a Mycoplasma genitalium metabolite. 
Methanol is an alkyl alcohol, a one-carbon compound, a volatile organic compound and a primary alcohol. 
Methanol is a conjugate acid of a methoxide.
Methanol is released to the environment during industrial uses and naturally from volcanic gases, vegetation, and microbes. 
Methanol Exposure may occur from ambient air and during the use of solvents. 
Acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term) exposure of humans to methanol by inhalation or ingestion may result in blurred vision, headache, dizziness, and nausea. 
No information is available on the reproductive, developmental, or carcinogenic effects of methanol in humans. 
Birth defects have been observed in the offspring of rats and mice exposed to methanol by inhalation. 
EPA has not classified methanol with respect to carcinogenicity.
Methanol is a clear liquid chemical used in thousands of everyday products, including plastics, paints, cosmetics and fuels.  
Methanol is also an energy resource used in the marine, automotive, and electricity sectors, and an emerging renewable energy resource.
Methanol (CH3OH) is water soluble and readily biodegradable, comprising of four parts hydrogen, one-part oxygen and one-part carbon, and is the simplest member of a group of organic chemicals called alcohols. 
Methanol is a clean-burning, biodegradable fuel. 
Increasingly, methanol’s environmental and economic advantages are making it an attractive alternative fuel for powering vehicles and ships, cooking food and heating homes. 
methanol (CH3OH), also called methyl alcohol, wood alcohol, or wood spirit, the simplest of a long series of organic compounds called alcohols, consisting of a methyl group (CH3) linked with a hydroxy group (OH). 
Methanol was formerly produced by the destructive distillation of wood. 
The modern method of preparing methanol is based on the direct combination of carbon monoxide gas and hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst. 
Increasingly, syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide derived from biomass, is used for methanol production.
Pure methanol is an important material in chemical synthesis. 
Methanol derivatives are used in great quantities for building up a vast number of compounds, among them many important synthetic dyestuffs, resins, pharmaceuticals, and perfumes. 
Large quantities are converted to dimethylaniline for dyestuffs and to formaldehyde for synthetic resins. 
Methanol is also used in automotive antifreezes, in rocket fuels, and as a general solvent. 
Methanol is also a high-octane, clean-burning fuel that is a potentially important substitute for gasoline in automotive vehicles. 
The methanol derived from wood is used chiefly for rendering industrial ethyl alcohol unfit to drink.
Methanol is a toxic alcohol that is used industrially as a solvent, pesticide, and alternative fuel source. 
Methanol  also occurs naturally in humans, animals, and plants. 
Foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, fruit juices, fermented beverages, and diet soft drinks containing aspartame are the primary sources of methanol in the human body. 
Most methanol poisonings occur as a result of drinking beverages contaminated with methanol or from drinking methanol-containing products. 
In the industrial setting, inhalation of high concentrations of methanol vapor and absorption of methanol through the skin are as effective as the oral route in producing toxic effects. 
The characteristic pungent (alcohol) odor of methanol does not provide sufficient warning of low levels of exposure.
Methanol, also known as methyl alcohol, is a highly versatile ｃhemical widely used for industrial purposes and prevalent in our everyday lives. 
Methanol's efficiency as an energy carrier has made it increasingly common as a fuel for factories and for electricity generation. 
The potential methanol offers as an environmentally sound fuel source is huge, and demand is growing worldwide as a promising resource for a new era of clean energy. 
methanol is a light volatile flammable poisonous liquid alcohol CH3OH used especially as a solvent, antifreeze, or denaturant for ethanol and in the synthesis of other chemicals.
Methanol is a basic component for the petrochemicals industry and is also increasingly being used in the energy sector.
Methanol, also known as Methylalcohol (CH3OH), is manufactured from synthesis gas, produced from steam reformed natural gas and carbon dioxide. 
Methanol is synthesized under pressure in a catalytic process and the crude Methanol is purified to chemical grade by distillation. 
Natural gas is the feedstock used in most of the world's production units.

Occurrence

Small amounts of methanol are present in normal, healthy human individuals. 
One study found a mean of 4.5 ppm in the exhaled breath of test subjects. 
The mean endogenous methanol in humans of 0.45 g/d may be metabolized from pectin found in fruit; one kilogram of apple produces up to 1.4 g of methanol.
Methanol is produced by anaerobic bacteria and phytoplankton.

History

In their embalming process, the ancient Egyptians used a mixture of substances, including methanol, which they obtained from the pyrolysis of wood. 
Pure methanol, however, was first isolated in 1661 by Robert Boyle, when he produced it via the distillation of buxus (boxwood). 
Methanol later became known as "pyroxylic spirit". 
In 1834, the French chemists Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Eugene Peligot determined its elemental composition.
They also introduced the word "methylène" to organic chemistry, forming it from Greek methy = "alcoholic liquid" + hȳlē = "forest, wood, timber, material". 
"Methylène" designated a "radical" that was about 14% hydrogen by weight and contained one carbon atom. 
This would be CH2, but at the time carbon was thought to have an atomic weight only six times that of hydrogen, so they gave the formula as CH. 
They then called wood alcohol (l'esprit de bois) "bihydrate de méthylène" (bihydrate because they thought the formula was C4H8O4 = (CH)4(H2O)2). 
The term "methyl" was derived in about 1840 by back-formation from "methylene", and was then applied to describe "methyl alcohol". 
This was shortened to "methanol" in 1892 by the International Conference on Chemical Nomenclature. 
The suffix -yl, which, in organic chemistry, forms names of carbon groups, is from the word methyl.
French chemist Paul Sabatier presented the first process that could be used to produce methanol synthetically in 1905. 
This process suggested that carbon dioxide and hydrogen could be reacted to produce methanol.
German chemists Alwin Mittasch and Mathias Pier, working for Badische-Anilin & Soda-Fabrik (BASF), developed a means to convert synthesis gas (a mixture of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen) into methanol and received a patent. 
According to Bozzano and Manenti, BASF's process was first utilized in Leuna, Germany in 1923. 
Operating conditions consisted of "high" temperatures (between 300 and 400 °C) and pressures (between 250 and 350 atm) with a zinc/chromium oxide catalyst.
US patent 1,569,775 (US 1569775) was applied for on 4 Sep 1924 and issued on 12 January 1926 to BASF; the process used a chromium and manganese oxide catalyst with extremely vigorous conditions: pressures ranging from 50 to 220 atm, and temperatures up to 450 °C. 
Modern methanol production has been made more efficient through use of catalysts (commonly copper) capable of operating at lower pressures. 
The modern low pressure methanol (LPM) process was developed by ICI in the late 1960s US 3326956 with the technology patent since long expired.
During World War II, methanol was used as a fuel in several German military rocket designs, under the name M-Stoff, and in a roughly 50/50 mixture with hydrazine, known as C-Stoff.
The use of methanol as a motor fuel received attention during the oil crises of the 1970s. 
By the mid-1990s, over 20,000 methanol "flexible fuel vehicles" (FFV) capable of operating on methanol or gasoline were introduced in the U.S. 
In addition, low levels of methanol were blended in gasoline fuels sold in Europe during much of the 1980s and early-1990s. 
Automakers stopped building methanol FFVs by the late-1990s, switching their attention to ethanol-fueled vehicles. 
While the methanol FFV program was a technical success, rising methanol pricing in the mid- to late-1990s during a period of slumping gasoline pump prices diminished interest in methanol fuels.
In the early 1970s, a process was developed by Mobil for producing gasoline fuel from methanol.
Between the 1960s and 1980s methanol emerged as a precursor to the feedstock chemicals acetic acid and acetic anhydride. 
These processes include the Monsanto acetic acid synthesis, Cativa process, and Tennessee Eastman acetic anhydride process.

SYNONYMS

-methanol
-methyl alcohol
-wood alcohol
-carbinol
-67-56-1
-Alcohol, Methyl
-Alcohol, Wood
-Carbinol
-Methanol
-Methoxide, Sodium
-Methyl Alcohol
-Sodium Methoxide
-Wood Alcohol
-wood spirit
-Pyro alcohol
-Methylol
-Pyroxylic spirit
-spirit of wood
-Columbian spirit
-Colonial spirit