Gases - Fundamentals of Industrial Chemistry: Pharmaceuticals, Polymers, and Business - page 20

of hydrogen. This mass ratio of 2:1 works for other mass units. Ten tons of
methane can yield 5 tons of hydrogen. Syn gas is used as a chemical feedstock.
The hydrogen is used for many processes, but ammonia synthesis is a major
use. Another major use of hydrogen is in oil refineries to upgrade different
petroleum fractions. Hydrogen is also used in the reduction of many organic
chemicals. Carbon monoxide is used for several processes, but two major
uses are with methanol to prepare acetic acid and with chlorine to prepare
phosgene.

CO + CH 3 OH CH 3 CO 2 H CO + Cl 2 COCl 2

Acetic acid

Phosgene

Syn gas is also used to produce methanol, to produce hydrocarbons by
the Fischer - Tropsch synthesis and to react with olefins in the synthesis of
aldehydes and alcohols by hydroformylation. For the synthesis of methanol,
syn gas is reacted, typically with a copper-based catalyst to form methanol by
the following equation.

CH 3 OH

CO + 2 H 2

The reaction shown is an oversimplification and items such as shifting the
equilibrium toward methanol, catalyst poisoning, and pressure/temperature
tradeoffs need to be considered and are the subject of a text [3]. Methanol
has many uses as a solvent and is the major component of windshield washer
fluid. However, most methanol is converted to other commodity chemicals
such as acetic acid, formaldehyde, or dimethyl terephthalate. It can also be
used directly as a fuel additive, as a component in the synthesis of biodiesel
or converted to dimethyl ether or methyl-t-butyl ether (MTBE), two fuel
additives.

CH 3 CO 2 H
Acetic acid

CH 3 OCH 3
Dimethyl ether

CO

O

CH 2 O
Formaldehyde
CO 2 CH 3

CH 3 OH

H 3 C
H 3 C

CO
CH 3

CH 3
MTBE

CO 2 CH 3
Dimethyl terephthalate

Celanese has announced [4] that they have developed a new technology
enabling them to produce ethanol from synthesis gas. They project a