• Toxicological Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.203-211
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• 1996

Methanol has been widely used as an industrial solvent and environmental exposure to methanol would be expected to be increasing. In humans, methanol causes metabolic acidosis and damage to ocular system, and can lead to death in severe and untreated case. Clinical symptoms are attributed to accumulation of forrnic acid which is a metabolic product of methanol. In humans and primates, formic acid is accumulated after methanol intake but not in rodents due to the rapid metabolism of methanol. Neverthless, the developmental and reproductive toxicity were reported in rodents. Previous reports showed that perinatal exposure to ethanol produces a variety of damage in human central nervous system by direct neurotoxicity. This suggests that the mechanism of toxic symptoms by methanol in rodents might mimic that of ethanol in human. In the present study I hypothesized that methanol can also induce toxicity in neuronal cells. For the study, primary culture of rat hippocampal neurons and glias were empolyed. Hippocampal cells were prepared from the embryonic day-17 fetuses and maintained up to 7 days. Effect of methanol (10, 100, 500 and 1000 mM) on neurite outgrowth and cell viability was investigated at 0, 18 and 24 hours following methanol treatment. To study the changes in proliferation of glial cells, protein content was measured at 7 days. Neuronal cell viability in culture was not altered during 0-24 hours after methanol treatment. 10 and 100 mM methanol treatment significantly enhanced neurite outgrowth between 18-24 hours. 7-day exposure to 10 or 100 mM methanol significantly increased protein contents but that to 1000 mM methanol decreased in culture. In conclusion, methanol may have a variety of effects on growing and differentiation of neurons and glial cells in hippocampus. Treatment with low concentration of methanol caused that neurite outgrowth was enhanced during 18-24 hours and the numbers of glial cell were increased for 7 days. High concentration of methanol brought about decreased protein contents. At present, the mechanism responsible for the methanol- induced enhancement of neurite outgrowth is not clear. Further studies are required to delineate the mechanism possibly by employing molecular biological techniques.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.706-713
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• 1994

Isothermal vapor-Liquid equilibrium data have been measured for binary systems MTBE-methanol, MTBE-n-heptane, and methanol-n-heptane at $45^{\circ}C$ and $65^{\circ}C$ by using head space gas chromato-graphy (H.S.G.C). Among these systems a minimum azeotrope was observed in both of MTBE-methanol system and n-heptane-methanol system. Particularly n-heptane-methanol system has a heterogeneous minimum azotrope since it has an immisible region. These equilibrium data were correlated with the excess Gibbs energy model, and the thermodynamic consistency test was also carried out by using Redlich-Kister equation.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.209-217
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• 2000

Mycobacterium sp. strain JCl DSM 3803 grown in methanol showed no methanol dehydrogenase or oxidase activities found in mast methylotrophic bacteria and yeasts, respectively. Even though the methanol-grown cells exhibited a little methanol-dependent oxidation by cytochrome c-dependent methanol dehydrogenase and alcohol dehydrogenase, they were not the key enzymes responsible for the methanol oxidation of the cells, in that the cells contained no c-type cytochrome and the methanol oxidizing activity from the partially purified alcohol dehydrogenase was too low, respectively. In substrate switching experiments, we found that only a catalase-peroxidase among the three types of catalase found in glucose-grown cells was highly expressed, in the methanol-grown cells and that its activity was relatively high during the exponential growth phase in Mycobacterium sp. JCl. Therefore, we propose that catalase-peroxidase is an essential enzyme responsible for the methanol metabolism directly Of indirectly in Mycobacterium sp. JCl.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.126.1-126.1
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• 2010

In direct methanol fuel cells(DMFCs), it is well known that methanol crossover severely reduces the cell performance and the cell efficiency. There are a number of design and operating parameters that influence the methanol crossover. This indicates that a DMFC demands a high degree of optimization. For the successful design and operation of a DMFC system, a better understanding of methanol crossover phenomena is essential. The main objective of this study is to examine methanol-crossover phenomena in DMFCs. In this study, 1D DMFC model previously developed by Ko et al. is used. The simulation results were compared with methanol-crossover data that were measured by Eccarius et al. The numerical predictions agree well with the methanol crossover data and the model successfully captures key experimental trends.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.96-102
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• 2008

Direct quantification of methanol in polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was studied and the methanol concentrations in PEM produced by crossover and diffusion were compared. The error range of the quantification was not smaller than ${\pm}15%$ and the amount of the methanol crossed over in our direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) was less than the methanol diffused to PEM. The methanol concentration in the PEM of the DMFC operated at different current densities were equivalent.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.124.1-124.1
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• 2010

The impurities in the methanol fuel that is used for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) could greatly affect the performance of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA). The most common impurities in the commercial methanol fuel are mainly ethanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, or ammonia. In this study, the effect of impurities in methanol fuel was investigated on the performance of MEA. The MEA for DMFC were prepared using a semi-automatic bar-coating machine, which can prepare the catalyst layer with uniform thickness for MEA. As a result, a single cell supplied with one of the 6 different kinds of methanol fuels showed a significant degradation of the fuel cell performance. The most common impurities in the commercial methanol fuel is mainly ethanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, or ammonia. The effects of the kind and the concentration of impurities in the methanol fuels were investigated on the performance of MEA for DMFC. We will propose the optimum compositions and limit concentration of impurities in methanol fuel for high performance of MEA for DMFC.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.577-581
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• 1993

The amino acid threonine was produced from glycine and ethanol in a reaction mixture using cell free extract of the methylotrophic bacterium isolated from soil and identified as mellthylo-bacterium sp. KJ29. Although the isolate could grow on carbon source other than methanol, only the cell free extract from the cells grown on methanol produced threonine. Methanol dehydrogenase (MDH) activity was present only in the cells grown on methanol when compared to the cells grown on heterotrophic substrates.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.55-60
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• 1967

Studies on the changes of methanol content in the manufacturing process of apple wine and apple brandy. The results from the studies of transition and changes of methanol content in the fermentation of wine and brandy from Korean apple, Kugkwang and Iwai are as follows. 1) Pectin, the source of methanol, can be extracted as dregs more than 85% of its in the process of pressing to get juice. 2) In the process of fermenting wine, the occurence of methanol depends on the condition of the apple itself (i.e. species, freshness, change in quality, or corruption). It seems that the insoluble pectin in the fresh apples changes into the soluble pectin as time goes by. 3) The heating treatment of fresh apples produced more methanol compared with nonheating treatment. 4) The content of methanol in apple brandy can influence free methanol content in mash pulp.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.524-531
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• 2008

The mitigation or elimination of methanol crossover for perfluorosulfonic acid fuel cell membranes has been investigated extensively for direct methanol fuel cell applications with the aim of increasing the electrochemical performance and enhancing the utilization rate of methanol. Self-assembly modifications by applying an oppositely charged polyelectrolyte to Nafion membranes were attempted in order to block or reduce methanol crossover while maintaining the other advantageous properties of Nafion membranes. It was reported that anionic polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH) was the most efficient polyelectrolyte in reducing methanol crossover, and considerable cell performance was obtained even at a methanol feed concentration of 10 M.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.45-48
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• 2008

This paper presents a passive air-breathing direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) which has been designed and tested. The single cell is fuelled by methanol vapor that is supplied through flow channel from a methanol reservoir at the anode, and the oxygen is supplied via natural air-breathing at the cathode. The methods for supplying the methanol vapor to the single cell were parallel channel and chamber. This research investigates various methods to identify the effects of using flow channels for providing the methanol vapor at the anode, and the opening ratio between the inlet and outlet ports for the methanol flow at the anode. The best flow channel condition for passive DMFC was a chamber, and the opening ratio was 0.8. Under these conditions, the peak power was 10.2mW/$cm^2$ at room temperature and ambient pressure. The key issues for the Passive DMFCs for using methanol vapor are that sufficient methanol needs to be supplied using a large as possible opening ratio. However, it is shown that the performance of the passive DMFC, which has a channel at the anode,is low due to the low differential pressure and insufficient methanol supply rate.