Making Methane from Carbon using mechanical chemistry

 

An article in the journal of the German chemical society has shown a system for making methane from carbon using a mechanochemical method that results in both a faster reaction rate and a new synthesis route. Most people are familiar with chemical reactions but this reaction uses a mill to crush carbon in the presence of hydrogen and as the carbon is crushed it reacts with the hydrogen using a cobalt catalyst at a very low temperature and exhibiting a very high selectivity, which gives a high yield of methane. As the carbon is crushed by the mill a reactive carbon species is created and this reacts with the hydrogen present forming methane. This carbon hydrogasification method could be a faster and cheaper way of turning carbon into methane for a very low cost. Many plants produce wood which can be easily converted into charcoal by pyrolysis and either this or perhaps coal could be used as a source to make cheap methane which does not involve fossil fuels.