1. A new catalyst to make liquid fuels from renewable resources
Read the full article at rsc.li/2AGdhHA
Chemists are now one step closer to producing fuels for trucks and airplanes from renewable resources. It is possible to take waste organic matter – wood, waste from food production etc – and make syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas. Syngas can be reacted to make longer chain hydrocarbons. However the process is currently expensive and uses a lot of energy because the liquid hydrocarbons have to be separated from shorter and longer chain molecules.
Chemists recently invented a new type of catalyst using cobalt nanoparticles and zeolite which means they can produce liquid hydrocarbons of the correct chain length so they are suitable for use in diesel engines or for aviation fuel: production of these fuels from renewable resources is now more economically feasible.
This slide summarises a recent article published by Chemistry World. Use this slide as a lesson starter. It also contains questions which can be used to engage pupils.
Image credit: Tawan / Shutterstock

2. A new catalyst to make liquid fuels from renewable resources
Read the full article at rsc.li/2AGdhHA
Chemists are now one step closer to producing fuels for trucks and airplanes from renewable resources. It is possible to take waste organic matter – wood, waste from food production etc – and make syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas. Syngas can be reacted to make longer chain hydrocarbons. However the process is currently expensive and uses a lot of energy because the liquid hydrocarbons have to be separated from shorter and longer chain molecules.
Chemists recently invented a new type of catalyst using cobalt nanoparticles and zeolite which means they can produce liquid hydrocarbons of the correct chain length so they are suitable for use in diesel engines or for aviation fuel: production of these fuels from renewable resources is now more economically feasible.
What is a hydrocarbon?
Methane, hexane and octadecane are all hydrocarbons, in what state are they at room temperature? Extension: Why are they different?
Where do we currently get petrol and diesel fuel from? And how?
Extension: Why are biomass-derived fuels sometimes considered carbon-neutral?
This slide summarises a recent article published by Chemistry World. Use this slide as a lesson starter. It also contains questions which can be used to engage pupils.
Image credit: Tawan / Shutterstock
A hydrocarbon is a molecule that contains only hydrogen and carbon atoms.
Methane is a gas at room temperature, hexane is a liquid and octadecane is a solid. The trend in the properties of alkanes is that the boiling and melting points of hydrocarbons depend on the size of the molecules and the smallest hydrocarbons have the lowest boiling points. Extension (or potentially a post-16 question): They are different because the longer chain molecules have greater forces of attraction between them.
Petrol and diesel are obtained by fractional distillation of crude oil.
A carbon-neutral fuel is one that has no net greenhouse gas emissions. Biomass energy is carbon neutral if as much carbon dioxide is captured by growing plants as is released when the fuel is burned. One reason why biomass-derived fuels might not be considered carbon neutral is that they require energy input to produce hydrocarbons from the biomass and it depends where this energy input comes from. If it in turn uses carbon-neutral technology (eg wind farms, solar panels) then it is more likely the biomass-derived fuels are carbon neutral.