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58-411: The interior of the primary MPPF building is divided into a low bay, high bay, and equipment airlock. The high bay is certified for the processing of hazardous materials such as high-pressure gasses, hypergolic propellant , ammonia , oxygen , and fluorocarbons . It has a usable floor space of 40 m × 18 m (132 ft × 60 ft) with a ceiling height of 19 m (62 ft). It

116-416: A chromium and manganese oxide catalyst with extremely vigorous conditions: pressures ranging from 50 to 220 atm , and temperatures up to 450 °C. Modern methanol production has been made more efficient through use of catalysts (commonly copper) capable of operating at lower pressures. The modern low pressure methanol (LPM) process was developed by ICI in the late 1960s US 3326956   with

174-486: A denaturant for ethanol, the product being known as "denatured alcohol" or "methylated spirit". This was commonly used during the US prohibition to discourage consumption of bootlegged liquor, and ended up causing several deaths. It is sometimes used as a fuel in alcohol lamps, portable fire pits and camping stoves. Methanol is used as a solvent and as an antifreeze in pipelines and windshield washer fluid . Methanol

232-473: A hydroxyl group , often abbreviated as MeOH ). It is a light, volatile , colorless and flammable liquid with a distinctive alcoholic odor similar to that of ethanol (potable alcohol), but is more acutely toxic than the latter. Methanol acquired the name wood alcohol because it was once produced chiefly by the destructive distillation of wood . Today, methanol is mainly produced industrially by hydrogenation of carbon monoxide . Methanol consists of

290-424: A density of 1.55 g/ml and 1.45 g/ml respectively. LH2 fuel offers extremely high performance, yet its density only warrants its usage in the largest of rocket stages, while mixtures of hydrazine and UDMH have a density at least ten times higher. This is of great importance in space probes , as the higher propellant density allows the size of their propellant tank to be reduced significantly, which in turn allows

348-511: A dinuclear active site is proposed in the sMMO enzyme, whereas a mononuclear iron ( alpha-oxygen ) is proposed in the Fe-zeolite. Global emissions of methanol by plants are estimated at between 180 and 250 million tons per year. This is between two and three times larger than man-made industrial production of methanol. As of 2023, 0.2% of global methanol production is produced in ways that have relatively low greenhouse gas emissions; this

406-401: A favorite of hikers who spend extended time in the wilderness. Similarly, the alcohol can be gelled to reduce risk of leaking or spilling, as with the brand " Sterno ". Methanol is mixed with water and injected into high performance diesel and gasoline engines for an increase of power and a decrease in intake air temperature in a process known as water methanol injection . Methanol is used as

464-652: A handover to exploration ground systems. Hypergolic propellant A hypergolic propellant is a rocket propellant combination used in a rocket engine , whose components spontaneously ignite when they come into contact with each other. The two propellant components usually consist of a fuel and an oxidizer . The main advantages of hypergolic propellants are that they can be stored as liquids at room temperature and that engines which are powered by them are easy to ignite reliably and repeatedly. Common hypergolic propellants are difficult to handle due to their extreme toxicity or corrosiveness . In contemporary usage,

522-604: A marker for such regions. It is detected through its spectral emission lines. In 2006, astronomers using the MERLIN array of radio telescopes at Jodrell Bank Observatory discovered a large cloud of methanol in space 0.463 terametres (288 million miles) across. In 2016, astronomers detected methanol in a planet-forming disc around the young star TW Hydrae using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array radio telescope. In their embalming process,

580-419: A mean of 4.5  ppm in the exhaled breath of test subjects. The mean endogenous methanol in humans of 0.45 g/d may be metabolized from pectin found in fruit; one kilogram of apple produces up to 1.4 g of pectin (0.6 g of methanol.) Methanol is produced by anaerobic bacteria and phytoplankton . Methanol is also found in abundant quantities in star-forming regions of space and is used in astronomy as

638-413: A methyl group linked to a polar hydroxyl group. With more than 20 million tons produced annually, it is used as a precursor to other commodity chemicals , including formaldehyde , acetic acid , methyl tert-butyl ether , methyl benzoate , anisole , peroxyacids , as well as a host of more specialised chemicals. Small amounts of methanol are present in normal, healthy human individuals. One study found

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696-464: A patent. According to Bozzano and Manenti, BASF's process was first utilized in Leuna , Germany in 1923. Operating conditions consisted of "high" temperatures (between 300 and 400 °C) and pressures (between 250 and 350 atm) with a zinc / chromium oxide catalyst. US patent 1,569,775 ( US 1569775   ) was applied for on 4 September 1924 and issued on 12 January 1926 to BASF; the process used

754-476: A small amount of pilot fuel (dual fuel). In China, methanol fuels industrial boilers, which are used extensively to generate heat and steam for various industrial applications and residential heating. Its use is displacing coal, which is under pressure from increasingly stringent environmental regulations. Direct-methanol fuel cells are unique in their low temperature, atmospheric pressure operation, which lets them be greatly miniaturized. This, combined with

812-455: A usable floor space of 11.9 m × 8.8 m (39 ft × 29 ft) with a ceiling height of 6.1 m (20 ft) and is a class 300,000 cleanroom. It is equipped with a 4.6 m × 6.1 m (15 ft × 20 ft) door. After its construction, the MPPF was used for the processing of both Space Shuttle and Launch Services Program payloads. Following the end of

870-420: Is characterized by high selectivity (>99.8%). The production of synthesis gas from methane produces three moles of hydrogen for every mole of carbon monoxide, whereas the synthesis consumes only two moles of hydrogen gas per mole of carbon monoxide. One way of dealing with the excess hydrogen is to inject carbon dioxide into the methanol synthesis reactor, where it, too, reacts to form methanol according to

928-414: Is equipped with an 18 t (20 short tons) bridge crane with a hook height of 15 m (49 ft) and a 12.2 m × 9.1 m (40 ft × 30 ft) vertical door. The low bay has a usable floor space of 10 m × 10 m (34 ft × 34 ft) with a ceiling height of 6.1 m (20 ft). Both the high bay and low bay are class 100,000 cleanrooms . The airlock has

986-457: Is fed to the propellant tanks under pressure through a series of check and safety valves . The propellants in turn flow through control valves into the combustion chamber; there, their instant contact ignition prevents a mixture of unreacted propellants from accumulating and then igniting in a potentially catastrophic hard start . As hypergolic rockets do not need an ignition system, they can fire any number of times by simply opening and closing

1044-404: Is its ready biodegradability and low environmental toxicity. It does not persist in either aerobic (oxygen-present) or anaerobic (oxygen-absent) environments. The half-life for methanol in groundwater is just one to seven days, while many common gasoline components have half-lives in the hundreds of days (such as benzene at 10–730 days). Since methanol is miscible with water and biodegradable, it

1102-405: Is known as "green" methanol. Most green methanol is produced from gasification of biomass . Syngas is produced from biomass gasification and further converted into green methanol. Another method of producing green methanol involves combining hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and a catalyst under high heat and pressure. To be classified as green methanol, the hydrogen must be green hydrogen , which

1160-421: Is more easily oxidized than is the feedstock methane, so the reactions tend not to be selective. Some strategies exist to circumvent this problem. Examples include Shilov systems and Fe- and Cu-containing zeolites. These systems do not necessarily mimic the mechanisms employed by metalloenzymes , but draw some inspiration from them. Active sites can vary substantially from those known in the enzymes. For example,

1218-800: Is produced using renewable electricity. Additionally, the carbon dioxide in this process must be a product of carbon capture and storage or direct air capture or biomass of recent origin. Some definitions of green methanol specify that the carbon dioxide must be captured during the burning of bioenergy . Methanol is available commercially in various purity grades. Commercial methanol is generally classified according to ASTM purity grades A and AA. Both grade A and grade AA purity are 99.85% methanol by weight. Grade "AA" methanol contains trace amounts of ethanol as well. Methanol for chemical use normally corresponds to Grade AA. In addition to water, typical impurities include acetone and ethanol (which are very difficult to separate by distillation). UV-vis spectroscopy

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1276-512: Is that captured CO 2 and hydrogen sourced from electrolysis could be used, removing the dependence on fossil fuels. The catalytic conversion of methane to methanol is effected by enzymes including methane monooxygenases . These enzymes are mixed-function oxygenases, i.e. oxygenation is coupled with production of water and NAD : Both Fe- and Cu-dependent enzymes have been characterized. Intense but largely fruitless efforts have been undertaken to emulate this reactivity. Methanol

1334-403: Is unlikely to accumulate in groundwater, surface water, air or soil. Methanol is occasionally used to fuel internal combustion engines . It burns forming carbon dioxide and water: Methanol fuel has been proposed for ground transportation. The chief advantage of a methanol economy is that it could be adapted to gasoline internal combustion engines with minimum modification to the engines and to

1392-634: Is widely used in many areas, especially polymers . The conversion entails oxidation: Acetic acid can be produced from methanol. Methanol and isobutene are combined to give methyl tert -butyl ether (MTBE). MTBE is a major octane booster in gasoline. Condensation of methanol to produce hydrocarbons and even aromatic systems is the basis of several technologies related to gas to liquids . These include methanol-to-hydrocarbons (MtH), methanol to gasoline (MtG), methanol to olefins (MtO), and methanol to propylene (MtP). These conversions are catalyzed by zeolites as heterogeneous catalysts . The MtG process

1450-754: The J-2 on the Saturn V . The RP-1 /LOX Merlin on the Falcon 9 can also be restarted. The most common hypergolic fuels, hydrazine , monomethylhydrazine and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine , and oxidizer, nitrogen tetroxide , are all liquid at ordinary temperatures and pressures. They are therefore sometimes called storable liquid propellants . They are suitable for use in spacecraft missions lasting many years. The cryogenity of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen has so far limited their practical use to space launch vehicles where they need to be stored only briefly. As

1508-528: The ancient Egyptians used a mixture of substances, including methanol, which they obtained from the pyrolysis of wood. Pure methanol, however, was first isolated in 1661 by Robert Boyle , when he produced it via the distillation of buxus (boxwood). It later became known as "pyroxylic spirit". In 1834, the French Chemists Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Eugene Peligot determined its elemental composition. They also introduced

1566-441: The central nervous system , especially the optic nerve – Symptoms may be delayed, become severe after 12 to 18 hours, and linger for several days after exposure 385 °C (725 °F; 658 K) Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit , amongst other names) is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic alcohol , with the chemical formula C H 3 O H (a methyl group linked to

1624-789: The Ariane 3 and 4) have been retired and replaced with the Ariane 5, which uses a first stage fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The Titan II, III and IV, with their hypergolic first and second stages, have also been retired for the Atlas V (RP-1/oxygen) and Delta IV (hydrogen/oxygen). Hypergolic propellants are still used in upper stages, when multiple burn-coast periods are required, and in launch escape systems . Hypergolically-fueled rocket engines are usually simple and reliable because they need no ignition system. Although larger hypergolic engines in some launch vehicles use turbopumps , most hypergolic engines are pressure-fed. A gas, usually helium ,

1682-574: The Shuttle program in 2011, it is slated to process the Orion spacecraft, and is also available to process hazardous or non-hazardous Space Launch System (SLS) payloads if necessary. Design work on upgrading the MPPF for Orion processing began in 2007 during the Constellation program , but actual installation and modification work began in 2013. Orion spacecraft processing will be performed by

1740-521: The Soviet R-7 that launched Sputnik 1 and the U.S. Atlas and Titan-1 , used kerosene and liquid oxygen . Although they are preferred in space launchers, the difficulties of storing a cryogen like liquid oxygen in a missile that had to be kept launch ready for months or years at a time led to a switch to hypergolic propellants in the U.S. Titan II and in most Soviet ICBMs such as the R-36 . But

1798-819: The Spacecraft and Offline Operations team while the SLS is being stacked on the Mobile Launcher in the Vehicle Assembly Building . During this time flight commodities will be loaded into the spacecraft. These flight commodities include monomethyl hydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer used in Orion's propulsion systems, ammonia coolant for thermal control, and Freon for the service module's radiator system. The MPPF will also be used to de-service Orion capsules that have returned from space and remove any residual flight commodities. Due to

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1856-552: The US In addition, low levels of methanol were blended in gasoline fuels sold in Europe during much of the 1980s and early-1990s. Automakers stopped building methanol FFVs by the late-1990s, switching their attention to ethanol-fueled vehicles. While the methanol FFV program was a technical success, rising methanol pricing in the mid- to late-1990s during a period of slumping gasoline pump prices diminished interest in methanol fuels . In

1914-637: The aniline. In Germany from the mid-1930s through World War II , rocket propellants were broadly classed as monergols , hypergols, non-hypergols and lithergols . The ending ergol is a combination of Greek ergon or work, and Latin oleum or oil, later influenced by the chemical suffix -ol from alcohol . Monergols were monopropellants , while non-hypergols were bipropellants which required external ignition, and lithergols were solid/liquid hybrids. Hypergolic propellants (or at least hypergolic ignition) were far less prone to hard starts than electric or pyrotechnic ignition. The "hypergole" terminology

1972-798: The cost of being very volatile and capable of exploding with any degree of inattention. Other proposed combat rocket fighters like the Heinkel Julia and reconnaissance aircraft like the DFS 228 were meant to use the Walter 509 series of rocket motors, but besides the Me 163, only the Bachem Ba 349 Natter vertical launch expendable fighter was ever flight-tested with the Walter rocket propulsion system as its primary sustaining thrust system for military-purpose aircraft. The earliest ballistic missiles , such as

2030-524: The deadliest rocketry accident in history, the Nedelin catastrophe . Common hypergolic propellant combinations include: Less-common or obsolete hypergolic propellants include: Pyrophoric substances, which ignite spontaneously in the presence of air, are also sometimes used as rocket fuels themselves or to ignite other fuels. For example a mixture of triethylborane and triethylaluminium (which are both separately and even more so together pyrophoric),

2088-614: The development of C-Stoff which contained 30% hydrazine hydrate, 57% methanol , and 13% water, and spontaneously ignited with high strength hydrogen peroxide . BMW developed engines burning a hypergolic mix of nitric acid with various combinations of amines, xylidines and anilines . Hypergolic propellants were discovered independently, for the second time, in the U.S. by GALCIT and Navy Annapolis researchers in 1940. They developed engines powered by aniline and red fuming nitric acid (RFNA). Robert Goddard , Reaction Motors , and Curtiss-Wright worked on aniline/nitric acid engines in

2146-570: The difficulties of such corrosive and toxic materials, including injury-causing leaks and the explosion of a Titan-II in its silo, led to their near universal replacement with solid-fuel boosters, first in Western submarine-launched ballistic missiles and then in land-based U.S. and Soviet ICBMs. The Apollo Lunar Module , used in the Moon landings , employed hypergolic fuels in both the descent and ascent rocket engines. The Apollo spacecraft used

2204-457: The early 1940s, for small missiles and jet assisted take-off ( JATO ). The project resulted in the successful assisted take off of several Martin PBM and PBY bombers, but the project was disliked because of the toxic properties of both fuel and oxidizer, as well as the high freezing point of aniline. The second problem was eventually solved by the addition of small quantities of furfuryl alcohol to

2262-464: The early 1970s, a process was developed by Mobil for producing gasoline fuel from methanol. Between the 1960s and 1980s methanol emerged as a precursor to the feedstock chemicals acetic acid and acetic anhydride . These processes include the Monsanto acetic acid synthesis , Cativa process , and Tennessee Eastman acetic anhydride process . Methanol is primarily converted to formaldehyde, which

2320-450: The equation In terms of mechanism, the process occurs via initial conversion of CO into CO 2 , which is then hydrogenated : where the H 2 O byproduct is recycled via the water-gas shift reaction This gives an overall reaction which is the same as listed above. In a process closely related to methanol production from synthesis gas, a feed of hydrogen and CO 2 can be used directly. The main advantage of this process

2378-478: The first process that could be used to produce methanol synthetically in 1905. This process suggested that carbon dioxide and hydrogen could be reacted to produce methanol. German chemists Alwin Mittasch and Mathias Pier, working for Badische-Anilin & Soda-Fabrik (BASF), developed a means to convert synthesis gas (a mixture of carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide , and hydrogen ) into methanol and received

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2436-535: The formula was C 4 H 8 O 4 or (CH) 4 (H 2 O) 2 ). The term "methyl" was derived in about 1840 by back-formation from "methylene", and was then applied to describe "methyl alcohol". This was shortened to "methanol" in 1892 by the International Conference on Chemical Nomenclature . The suffix -yl , which, in organic chemistry , forms names of carbon groups, is from the word methyl . French chemist Paul Sabatier presented

2494-479: The hazardous materials involved, loading and unloading of flight commodities will be remotely monitored and controlled from one of the firing rooms inside the Launch Control Center and performed by technicians wearing Self Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble (SCAPE) hazmat suits. On January 16 2021, The Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft began fueling and pre-launch servicing in the MPPF following

2552-638: The infrastructure that delivers and stores liquid fuel. Its energy density, however, is less than gasoline, meaning more frequent fill ups would be required. However, it is equivalent to super high-octane gasoline in horsepower, and most modern computer-controlled fuel injection systems can already use it. Methanol is an alternative fuel for ships that helps the shipping industry meet increasingly strict emissions regulations. It significantly reduces emissions of sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter. Methanol can be used with high efficiency in marine diesel engines after minor modifications using

2610-447: The largest issue with the usage of cryogenic propellants in interplanetary space is boil-off, which is largely dependent on the scale of spacecraft, for larger craft such as Starship this is less of an issue. Another advantage of hypergolic propellants is their high density compared to cryogenic propellants. LOX has a density of 1.14 g/ml, while on the other hand, hypergolic oxidizers such as nitric acid or nitrogen tetroxide have

2668-409: The nitrification of sensitive aquifers . Methanol is used as a destaining agent in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis . Carbon monoxide and hydrogen react over a catalyst to produce methanol. Today, the most widely used catalyst is a mixture of copper and zinc oxides , supported on alumina , as first used by ICI in 1966. At 5–10 MPa (50–100 atm) and 250 °C (482 °F), the reaction

2726-653: The probe to fit within a smaller payload fairing . Relative to their mass, traditional hypergolic propellants possess a lower calorific value than cryogenic propellant combinations like LH2 / LOX or LCH4 / LOX . A launch vehicle that uses hypergolic propellant must therefore carry a greater mass of fuel than one that uses these cryogenic fuels. The corrosivity , toxicity , and carcinogenicity of traditional hypergolics necessitate expensive safety precautions. Failure to follow adequate safety procedures with an exceptionally dangerous UDMH-nitric acid propellant mixture nicknamed "Devil's Venom" , for example, resulted in

2784-512: The propellant valves until the propellants are exhausted and are therefore uniquely suited for spacecraft maneuvering and well suited, though not uniquely so, as upper stages of such space launchers as the Delta II and Ariane 5 , which must perform more than one burn. Restartable non-hypergolic rocket engines nevertheless exist, notably the cryogenic (oxygen/hydrogen) RL-10 on the Centaur and

2842-417: The relatively easy and safe storage and handling of methanol, may open the possibility of fuel cell-powered consumer electronics , such as laptop computers and mobile phones. Methanol is also a widely used fuel in camping and boating stoves. Methanol burns well in an unpressurized burner, so alcohol stoves are often very simple, sometimes little more than a cup to hold fuel. This lack of complexity makes them

2900-642: The same combination for the Service Propulsion System . Those spacecraft and the Space Shuttle (among others) used hypergolic propellants for their reaction control systems . The trend among Western space launch agencies is away from large hypergolic rocket engines and toward hydrogen/oxygen engines or methane/oxygen and RP-1 /oxygen engines for various advantages and disadvantages . Ariane 1 through 4, with their hypergolic first and second stages (and optional hypergolic boosters on

2958-463: The technology patent long since expired. During World War II , methanol was used as a fuel in several German military rocket designs, under the name M-Stoff , and in a roughly 50/50 mixture with hydrazine , known as C-Stoff . The use of methanol as a motor fuel received attention during the oil crises of the 1970s . By the mid-1990s, over 20,000 methanol " flexible fuel vehicles " (FFV) capable of operating on methanol or gasoline were introduced in

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3016-470: The terms "hypergol" and "hypergolic propellant" usually mean the most common such propellant combination: dinitrogen tetroxide plus hydrazine . In 1935, Hellmuth Walter discovered that hydrazine hydrate was hypergolic with high-test peroxide of 80–83%. He was probably the first to discover this phenomenon, and set to work developing a fuel. Prof. Otto Lutz assisted the Walter Company with

3074-417: The transesterification of fats and production of biodiesel via transesterification . Methanol is a promising energy carrier because, as a liquid, it is easier to store than hydrogen and natural gas. Its energy density is, however, lower than methane , per kg. Its combustion energy density is 15.6 MJ / L ( LHV ), whereas that of ethanol is 24 and gasoline is 33 MJ/L. Further advantages for methanol

3132-511: The word "methylène" to organic chemistry, forming it from Greek methy = "alcoholic liquid" + hȳlē = "forest, wood, timber, material". "Methylène" designated a "radical" that was about 14% hydrogen by weight and contained one carbon atom. This would be CH 2 , but at the time carbon was thought to have an atomic weight only six times that of hydrogen, so they gave the formula as CH. They then called wood alcohol (l'esprit de bois) "bihydrate de méthylène" (bihydrate because they thought

3190-543: Was coined by Dr. Wolfgang Nöggerath, at the Technical University of Brunswick , Germany. The only rocket-powered fighter ever deployed was the Messerschmitt Me 163 B Komet . The Komet had a HWK 109-509 , a rocket motor which consumed methanol/hydrazine as fuel and high test peroxide T-Stoff as oxidizer. The hypergolic rocket motor had the advantage of fast climb and quick-hitting tactics at

3248-567: Was once commercialized at Motunui in New Zealand. The European Fuel Quality Directive allows fuel producers to blend up to 3% methanol, with an equal amount of cosolvent, with gasoline sold in Europe. In 2019, it is estimated that China used as much as 7 million tons of methanol as transportation fuels, representing over 5% of their fuel pool. Methanol is the precursor to most simple methylamines , methyl halides , and methyl ethers. Methyl esters are produced from methanol, including

3306-513: Was used as an automobile coolant antifreeze in the early 1900s. As of May 2018, methanol was banned in the EU for use in windscreen washing or defrosting due to its risk of human consumption as a result of 2012 Czech Republic methanol poisonings . In some wastewater treatment plants , a small amount of methanol is added to wastewater to provide a carbon food source for the denitrifying bacteria , which convert nitrates to nitrogen gas and reduce

3364-715: Was used for engine starts in the SR-71 Blackbird and in the F-1 engines on the Saturn V rocket and is used in the Merlin engines on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. Methanol Moderately toxic for small animals – Highly toxic to large animals and humans (in high concentrations) – May be fatal/ lethal or cause blindness and damage to the liver , kidneys , and heart if swallowed – Toxicity effects from repeated over exposure have an accumulative effect on

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