Oxford: Making methanol from waste materials

Business Lead, Development Opportunity

Isis Innovation Limited, Oxford University’s technology transfer company, is seeking companies interested in the commercial development of a catalytic process to convert glycerol, the main by-product of biodiesel production, into methanol. The new method is clean and operates at a low temperature and pressure.

Methanol is in demand as an industrial chemical and as a fuel for internal combustion engines and fuel cells. Today, around 90% of methanol is produced from fossil fuels via the synthesis gas reaction. For methanol to become a truly green fuel, a production method that does not rely on fossil fuels is needed. In nature, microorganisms produce methanol from biomass through fermentation, but the process is too slow for industrial scale production.

Conversion processes for glycerol have focused on reforming to synthesis gas, oxidation, dehydration, hydrogenolysis and polymerisation. Until now there has been no viable commercial process for the direct conversion of glycerol to methanol. However, the Oxford invention – the subject of a patent application – produces methanol as an exclusive product from glycerol in an efficient and clean catalytic process that occurs at a relatively low temperature and pressure (100 degrees C and 20 bar of pressure).

Glycerol is the major by-product in biodiesel and oleochemical production. For every 9kg of vegetable oil processed, 1kg of glycerol is produced. Although glycerol is used in foods and personal care products, there is no large-scale industrial demand; some 350,000 tonnes are incinerated in the US each year.