Efficient Extraction of Exergy from Hydrocarbon Fuels

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Fossil fuels possess, in general, a very high exergy (available energy) up to 95% of heat value as chemical energy, but they are usually burnt directly to form thermal energy with a large exergy loss in the combustion process. It is proposed that the exergy loss through the combustion process could be largely reduced by introducing a reforming process from hydrocarbon fuels to hydrogen before combustion, because the exergy loss in the hydrogen combustion is much smaller than that of any other hydrocarbon fuel. On this standpoint, methanol has an outstanding advantage that very low quality or low temperature thermal energies corresponding to 100℃ can be used as heat source and stored in hydrogen as chemical energy. In other words, methanol is a key material to realize a new energy system with exergy regeneration. This research group of A01, consisting of 10 members, aims at an intensive study of an efficient exergy extraction from hydrocarbon fuels, focussing on a direct conversion of methane to methanol with a minimum required energy using plasma chemical reactions, catalytic reactions and other newly proposed processes.In the four years of research period, the subgroup of plasma chemical reactions has succeeded in a direct synthesis of methanol from CHィイD24ィエD2/OィイD22ィエD2 or CHィイD24ィエD2/HィイD22ィエD2O by use of a newly developed various non-thermal plasma technologies. The subgroup of catalytic reactions has developed various types of new catalyst systems for a methanol synthesis. Fundamental chemical kinetic approaches have been also performed to clarify the mechanisms. Further, various new processes have been developed not only for methanol synthesis but also for simultaneous generation of heat, electricity and chemical products.