Oxidation of monofunctional alcohols

It now remains for us to consider the oxidation of monofunctional alcohols and molecules containing the -OH group remote from other functions. The conversion of methanol to formaldehyde (methanal) can be performed either by dehydrogenation (difficult, see Chapter 9) or by oxidative dehydrogenation according to the equation  

This process is performed very successfully on an industrial scale using either macrocrystalline silver or an iron molybdate type of catalyst. The 

This same reaction has recently been studied105 with a different objective, namely, oxidation of methanol to produce hydrogen according to the equation 

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