Catalysts May Save 'Stranded' Natural Gas
Posted on: Thursday, 22 February 2007, 09:00 CST
A German-led study has discovered chemical catalysts that might lead to the use of stranded natural gas, large quantities of which is burned as waste.
Johannes Lercher and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich and the Dow Chemical Co. say up to 60 percent of the world's natural gas is classified as stranded, meaning it cannot be used locally or transported economically to other markets. When produced in the course of pumping crude oil, such gas is either vented into the atmosphere or burned at the wellhead.
That wasted natural gas is mainly methane, a basic raw material for making chemicals that are used to make hundreds of medical, commercial and industrial products.
Until now, no practical technology has been found for using the methane contained in natural gas but the new study describes research on lanthanum-based catalysts that convert methane into a compound that the researchers say would be an ideal chemical feedstock.
The research is described in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Source: United Press International
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