Question

What are the important uses of methanol?

Answer 1

Hint: Methanol is having chemical formula $C{{H}_{3}}OH$. It is flammable, light in weight, highly volatile in nature and colourless. It is also called methyl alcohol.

Complete answer:
There are many more uses of methanol found, let’s discuss about some of them:
- Nowadays Methanol is widely used in the production of formaldehyde and acetic acid.
- It is also used as an antifreeze, (that is basically an additive which is used to slow down the freezing point of a liquid) in many of the pipelines.
- In engines also, it is used on a large scale, a mixture of water and methanol is used in high-performance engines in order to increase the power.
- Methanol also has an application that is, it is used in the production of some olefins, hydrocarbons, and also in some aromatic compounds.
- It is also used in the production of some compounds like methyl esters and methylamines.
- in the sewage treatment plants it is used in large amounts, since it serves as a carbon-based food source for denitrifying bacteria.
- Methanol can be used as a fuel in engines. burning of methanol can be written by the equation:
\[2C{{H}_{3}}OH+3{{O}_{2}}\to 4{{H}_{2}}O+2C{{O}_{2}}\]

Note:
- There are several disadvantages of methanol, the primary disadvantage of methanol as a fuel is that it has a tendency to corrode aluminium.
- Its energy density is found to be approximately half of the energy density offered by gasoline.