Distributed methanol

The distributed methanol case under discussion here, for 195 tons per day. 

Advantages over compressed gas, e.g., ease of handling, distribution (methanol can integrate with existing distribution systems for liquid fuels), no need for compressors or gas cylinders, better safety... 

Like in a PEMFC, the gas diffusion layers in DMFC serve as a distributor of reactant gases to the electrode-electrolyte interface. At the cathode, it distributes oxygen and facilitates in removing any excess water to avoid flooding of the electrode by transferring it to the gas flow channels of the bipolar plate. At the anode, it distributes methanol-water mixture and removes carbon dioxide produced at the anode oxidization reaction (Lindermeir et al., 2004). 

When ethanoi is present, the risk of separation is much less than with methanol. Nevertheless, the ethanol should be relatively anhydrous (less than 3000 ppm water) moreover, if a fuel containing ethanol comes in contact with a water layer, a migration of ethanol toward the water is observed creating a fuel quality problem manifested by lower octane number and an environmental quality problem in that the water will need to be treated. Distribution of ethanol-based fuels requires extra precaution to ensure dryness in distribution systems. 

The principle of headspace sampling is introduced in this experiment using a mixture of methanol, chloroform, 1,2-dichloroethane, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, benzene, toluene, and p-xylene. Directions are given for evaluating the distribution coefficient for the partitioning of a volatile species between the liquid and vapor phase and for its quantitative analysis in the liquid phase. Both packed (OV-101) and capillary (5% phenyl silicone) columns were used. The GG is equipped with a flame ionization detector. 

If 10% of the U.S. gasoline consumption were replaced by methanol for a twenty year period, the required reserves of natural gas to support that methanol consumption would amount to about one trillion m (36 TCF) or twice the 1990 annual consumption. Thus the United States could easily support a substantial methanol program from domestic reserves. However, the value of domestic natural gas is quite high. Almost all of the gas has access through the extensive pipeline distribution system to industrial, commercial, and domestic markets and the value of gas in these markets makes methanol produced from domestic natural gas uncompetitive with gasoline and diesel fuel, unless oil prices are very high. 

It is therefore more relevant to examine wodd resources of natural gas in judging the supply potential for methanol. Wodd proved reserves amount to approximately 1.1 x 10 (40,000 TCF) (11). As seen in Figure 1, these reserves are distributed more widely than oil reserves. 

Fuel Flexible Vehicles. Using dedicated alcohol fuel vehicles pointed to the importance of a wide distribution of fueling stations. Methanol-fueled vehicles require refueling more often than gasoline vehicles. 

The alcoholysis reaction may be carried out either batchwise or continuously by treating the triglyceride with an excess of methanol for 30—60 min in a well-agitated reactor. The reactants are then allowed to settle and the glycerol [56-81-5] is recovered in methanol solution in the lower layer. The sodium methoxide and excess methanol are removed from the methyl ester, which then maybe fed directiy to the hydrogenolysis process. Alternatively, the ester may be distilled to remove unreacted material and other impurities, or fractionated into different cuts. Practionation of either the methyl ester or of the product following hydrogenolysis provides alcohols that have narrow carbon-chain distributions. 

Formaldehyde solutions exist as a mixture of oligomers, H0(CH20) H. Their distribution has been deterrnined for 6—50 wt % HCHO solutions with low methanol using nmr and gas chromatographic techniques (28,29). Averages of the equiUbtium constants for equation 4 ate K2 = 7.1, = 4.7,... 

The volume and distribution of this additional yield is shown ia Table 10. Puriftcatioa of the acetyleae is by methanol absorption. 

Fumaric acid is sold as resia-grade and food-grade. The general sales specification under which resia-grade fumaric acid is sold ia the United States specifies white, crystalline granules with a minimum assay of 99.6% and maximum ash content of 0.05%. The moisture specification is 0.3% maximum with < 10 ppm heavy metals. The color of a 5% solution ia methanol is to be less than 10 APHA. Food-grade fumaric acid calls for somewhat lower impurity levels. Particle size and particle size distribution are important ia many appHcations. 

Quench Converter. The quench converter (Fig. 7a) was the basis for the initial ICl low pressure methanol flow sheet. A portion of the mixed synthesis and recycle gas bypasses the loop interchanger, which provides the quench fractions for the iatermediate catalyst beds. The remaining feed gas is heated to the inlet temperature of the first bed. Because the beds are adiabatic, the feed gas temperature increases as the exothermic synthesis reactions proceed. The injection of quench gas between the beds serves to cool the reacting mixture and add more reactants prior to entering the next catalyst bed. Quench converters typically contain three to six catalyst beds with a gas distributor in between each bed for injecting the quench gas. A variety of gas mixing and distribution devices are employed which characterize the proprietary converter designs. 

Retrofitting features of the more efficient reactor types have been the principal thmst of older methanol plant modernization (17). Conversion of quench converters to radial flow improves mixing and distribution, while reducing pressure drop. Installing an additional converter on the synthesis loop purge or before the final stage of the synthesis gas compressor has been proposed as a debotdenecking measure. 

Several properties of the filler are important to the compounder (279). Properties that are frequentiy reported by fumed sihca manufacturers include the acidity of the filler, nitrogen adsorption, oil absorption, and particle size distribution (280,281). The adsorption techniques provide a measure of the surface area of the filler, whereas oil absorption is an indication of the stmcture of the filler (282). Measurement of the sdanol concentration is critical, and some techniques that are commonly used in the industry to estimate this parameter are the methyl red absorption and methanol wettabihty (273,274,277) tests. Other techniques include various spectroscopies, such as diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy (drift), inverse gas chromatography (igc), photoacoustic ir, nmr, Raman, and surface forces apparatus (277,283—290). 

Extraction from Aqueous Solutions Critical Fluid Technologies, Inc. has developed a continuous countercurrent extraction process based on a 0.5-oy 10-m column to extract residual organic solvents such as trichloroethylene, methylene chloride, benzene, and chloroform from industrial wastewater streams. Typical solvents include supercritical CO9 and near-critical propane. The economics of these processes are largely driven by the hydrophihcity of the product, which has a large influence on the distribution coefficient. For example, at 16°C, the partition coefficient between liquid CO9 and water is 0.4 for methanol, 1.8 for /i-butanol, and 31 for /i-heptanol. 

When the relationship between the distribution coefficient of a solute and solvent composition, or the corrected retention volume and solvent composition, was evaluated for aqueous solvent mixtures, it was found that the simple relationship identified by Purnell and Laub and Katz et al. no longer applied. The suspected cause for the failure was the strong association between the solvent and water. As a consequence, the mixture was not binary in nature but, in fact, a ternary system. An aqueous solution of methanol, for example, contained methanol, water and methanol associated with water. It follows that the prediction of the net distribution coefficient or net retention volume for a ternary system would require the use of three distribution coefficients one representing the distribution of the solute between the stationary phase and water, one representing that between the stationary phase and methanol and one between the stationary phase and the methanol/water associate. Unfortunately, as the relative amount of association varies with the initial... 

Using the average value for the equilibrium constant, the distribution concentration of the different components of a methanol water mixture were calculated for initial methanol concentrations ranging from zero to 100%v/v. The curves they obtained are shown in Figure 28. The molar refractivities of 11.88 is also in accordance with that expected since the molar refractivity s of water and methanol are 3.72 and 8.28 respectively. The refractive index of the associate of 1.3502 is, as would be expected, higher than that of either water or methanol. 

Kmw) is the distribution coefficient of the solute between methanol associated with water and n-hexadecane... 

The results obtained by Katz et al. [15] are shown as experimental points on the curves relating the distribution coefficient of the solute against volume fraction of methanol added to the original mixture in Figure 31. Due to the difficulty of measuring the distribution coefficient of each solute between pure water and hexadecane (because of their extremely high retention), the values were obtained from a polynomial curve fit to the data which gave a value for (K) at a = 0. 

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