Question

Natural gas (mostly methane, CH4) is very abundant in many Middle Eastern oil fields. However, the costs of shipping the gas to markets in other parts of the world are high because it is necessary to liquefy the gas, which has a boiling point of −164 ^∘C. One possible strategy is to oxidize the methane (in a 1:1 mole ratio) to methanol, CH3OH, which has a boiling point of 65 ^∘C and can therefore be shipped more readily.

Part A) What volume of methanol is formed if 3.06×10¹¹ LL of methane at 1.013 bar pressure and 25 ^∘C is oxidized to methanol? The density of CH3OH is 0.791 g mL−1. Assume that the oxidation of methane to methanol occurs in a 1:1 stoichiometry.

Part B)

Standard heats of formation

The standard heats of formation for selected substances are shown here.

Substance	ΔfH∘ (kJ mol−1)
CH4(g)	−74.8
CH3OH(l)	−238.6
CO2(g)	−393.5
H2O(l)	−285.83
O2(g)	0

Calculate the standard enthalpy changes for the combustion of a mole of methane and the combustion of a mole of methanol. Assume that the combustion reactions occurs at 25°C, so the water produced is liquid.

Answer 1

The calculations of these questions uploaded as images.