Issue 10, 2017

Future perspectives for formaldehyde: pathways for reductive synthesis and energy storage

Abstract

Formaldehyde has been a key platform reagent in the chemical industry for many decades in a large number of bulk scale industrial processes. Thus, the annual global demand reached 30 megatons per year, and currently it is solely produced under oxidative, energy intensive conditions, using high-temperature approaches for the methanol oxidation. In recent years, new fields of application beyond the use of formaldehyde and its derivatives as i.e. a synthetic reagent or disinfectant have been suggested. For example dialkoxymethane could be envisioned as a direct fuel for combustion engines or aqueous formaldehyde and paraformaldehyde may act as a liquid organic hydrogen carrier molecule (LOHC) for hydrogen generation to be used for hydrogen fuel cells. To turn these new perspectives in feasible approaches, it requires also new less energy-intensive technologies for the synthesis of formaldehyde. This perspective article spreads light on the recent directions towards the low-temperature reductive synthesis of formaldehyde and its derivatives and low-temperature formaldehyde reforming for hydrogen generation. These aspects are important for the future demands on modern societies’ renewable energy management, in the form of a methanol and hydrogen economy, and the required formaldehyde-feedstock for the manufacture of many formaldehyde-based daily products.

Graphical abstract: Future perspectives for formaldehyde: pathways for reductive synthesis and energy storage

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
09 Nov 2016
Accepted
16 Dez 2016
First published
16 Dez 2016
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Green Chem., 2017,19, 2347-2355

Future perspectives for formaldehyde: pathways for reductive synthesis and energy storage

L. E. Heim, H. Konnerth and M. H. G. Prechtl, Green Chem., 2017, 19, 2347 DOI: 10.1039/C6GC03093A

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