Production of Methanol by Using Formic Acid with CuO/GO Composite

Formic acid can be obtained from the captured carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the vicinity of traffic-congested points. This work included the conversion of formic acid into Methanol at a controlled temperature of 300 °C and a pressure of 1.1 bar approximately. The experimental setup includes the mass flow rate controller for the utilization of formic acid in the reaction chamber and the mass flow rate monitor that measures the volume of methanol coming out of the reaction chamber. The inside surface of the reaction chamber is coated with anti-corrosive material, which is glass fiber reinforcement to prevent the corrosion effect of formic acid. The reaction chamber contains reactants of copper oxides (0.75-0.80 grams) as catalysts and graphene oxide (115-120 grams) as reducing agents in powder form. The reaction has been performed in a closed atmosphere for a period of eight to ten hours and the temperature is maintained at 300°C approximately. The yield of the methanol is from 30-35% of the weight of the aqueous solution formic acid (0.12g/L) as input. Methanol obtained from this experiment is 90% of methanol and 10% of water approximately. This methanol can be used by blending with gasoline as fuel for the spark-ignition engines to replace 100% of gasoline. Also, some percentage of methanol can be blended with diesel for fueling compression ignition engines. This in turn decreases the dependency on gasoline and diesel, which are manufactured from fossil fuels as input.