Thermodynamic analysis for the oxidation of methanol and its derivatives

Thermodynamic calculation for the multi-component, multi-phase system composed by methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid, O2, N2, CO2 and H2O is carried out using the HSC software. To the extent of thermodynamics, the oxidation reactions of methanol, formaldehyde and formic acid are all spontaneous. They can more easily be deep-oxidized to CO2 and H2O than partially-oxidized to their intermediates. The conversions of the methanol and formaldehyde are approached to 100% even under the temperature of 270 K. Accordingly, the oxidation process is dynamically controlled. This makes it possible to develop a kind of high efficient low temperature combustion catalyst.