Abstract

Being a greenhouse gas, methane is a threat to biodiversity. Hence, the utilization of methane by converting it into a valuable chemical like methanol is one of the most promising reactions. To solve that problem, a large number of studies have been performed on methane-tomethanol conversion (MTM process). Still, to date, the production of methanol from methane on an industry scale is a crucial challenge. After a thorough study, in this review article, only those reported methods, which produce a satisfactory yield of methanol using a large variety of catalysts like natural, heterogeneous, non-thermal plasma, nanoparticles fixed in solid bed, etc., have been briefly discussed. To investigate minutely, the reason behind the inefficiency of each type of catalyst in producing methanol on a large scale has been analyzed, and a comparison among the activities of different catalysts has been made. Herein, catalysts with comparatively better efficiency under ambient temperature and pressure have also been highlighted. With the hope of producing methanol on a large scale, some basic concepts of future planning strategies for designing more suitable reaction systems are also proposed in this study

Keywords: Hazardous methane utilization, valuable methanol production, DMTM process, heterogeneous catalyst, plasma catalyst, nanoparticle catalyst, design strategy.

Graphical Abstract