"A pipe or tube of glass, metal or other material, bent so that one leg is longer than the other, and used for drawing off liquids by means of atmospheric pressure, which forces the liquid up the shorter leg and over the bend in the pipe."
This definition is correct as atmospheric pressure differences start the process. However the dictionary doesn't explain that gravity eventually takes over. Dr. Hughes sums up:
As any petrol thief knows, to get the liquid over the "hump" of the tube you have to suck the other end or, more pedantically, lower the pressure in your lungs to beneath atmospheric pressure by expanding them. Once the liquid has passed the highest point in the tube, the continuous chain of cohesive bonds between the liquid molecules in the tube, and the force of gravity, do the rest.
How do you think methanol would be produced at industrial scale?
You can produce methanol from methane (a problem greenhouse gas), and more importantly carbon dioxide.
From wikipedia:
Methanol has been generated directly from carbon dioxide in solution using copper oxide (CuO) nanorods coated by cuprous oxide (Cu2O) and energy from (simulated) sunlight. The process operated with 95% electrochemical efficiency and is claimed to be scalable to industrial size.
It's astonishing this technology isn't more widely used.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
-George Santayana
"Engineering without management is art." -- Jeff Johnson
