Courses
Courses for Kids
Free study material
Offline Centres
More
Store Icon
Store
seo-qna
SearchIcon
banner

Carbon monoxide reacts with hydrogen under certain conditions to form methanol ( CH3OH ). Write a balanced chemical equation for this reaction indicating the physical state of reactants and product as well as the condition under this reaction, take place.

Answer
VerifiedVerified
474.3k+ views
2 likes
like imagedislike image
Hint: In the above question, it is asked to write a balanced chemical equation for the synthesis of methanol. The formation of methanol from carbon monoxide and hydrogen is more than 99.8% when pressure is in between 5-10MPa and 250C .

Complete step by step solution
In the above equation, we have to write a balanced chemical equation for the synthesis of methanol. The chemical formula of carbon monoxide is CO and its physical state is gas, the chemical formula of hydrogen is H2 and its physical state is also gaseous. The chemical formula of methanol is CH3OH and its physical state is liquid.
So, let us write a rough chemical reaction as:
 CO+H2CH3OH
We can see that the number of carbon and oxygen atoms are balanced on both sides. But the number of H on the reactant side is 2 whereas the number of H on the product side is 4. And hence, multiplying 2 as the coefficient of H2 , we will get a balanced chemical equation.
So, the balanced chemical equation is:
 CO(g)+2H2(g)ZnO+CrO3510MPa,250CCH3OH(l)
Condition: 5-10MPa and 250C , zinc oxide and chromium oxide.
At 5-10MPa and 250C , methanol production is more than 99.8% . Zinc oxide and chromium oxide is used as a catalyst to increase the rate of production of methanol.

Note
Methanol is used as antifreeze, solvent, fuel and as a denaturant for ethanol.
Methanol is frequently called wood alcohol because it was once produced primarily as a by-product of destructive distillation of wood.