Our favourite for the first year of the competition was the introduction of the method of direct conversion of methane to methanol, which was prepared and presented by our colleague Michal Beluský in cooperation with Dr. Jiří Dědeček from UFCH JH

The aim of the Transfera Technology Day event was to help the project intentions, which made it to the narrower final, with their next steps. The presentation of the ten finalists were evaluated by an expert jury composed of representatives of investors and renowned advisers. The jurors appreciated the commercial potential of the presented scientific results and outlined what could be key in technology transfer from a business point of view. The level of presentations of all projects was at a very good level and the differences, especially between the winners, were minimal.

A few words about the method. The world lacks cheap technology for processing mined methane and at the same time the demand for methanol is growing. Methane is a component of natural gas and its handling is more complicated, than in the case of oil. The team of Jiří Dědeček from the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the CAS created and described the conversion of methane to methanol using molecular oxygen. Direct oxidation with molecular oxygen presents a suitable way to significantly reduce the cost of producing methanol and many other industrial products.

The first year of the Transfera Technology Day 2020 event was organized by the Transfera.cz association in cooperation with the CzechInvest agency and with the support of the TA CR. Representatives of the scientific, transfer and business community have agreed, that this was just the beginning and they are looking for the future events.

Using materials: Daniel Jakeš, J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry CAS.