Overview
- Northwestern chemists reported the plasma bubble reactor in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on Wednesday, converting methane to methanol in a single step.
- The device fires high‑voltage pulses through methane in a porous glass tube coated with copper oxide, creating cold plasma that breaks bonds at room temperature.
- Water inside the reactor immediately dissolves the new methanol, which stops further reactions that would otherwise convert it into carbon dioxide.
- After adding argon to boost electron density, tests found the liquid was 96.8% methanol and methanol accounted for 57% of all products, with hydrogen, ethylene, and a small amount of propane also formed.
- The team says this could avoid the extreme heat and pressure of today’s steam‑reforming plants and allow small units at leak sites, though better separation, higher efficiency, and scale‑up are still needed before it can compete.