An apparatus and method of producing methanol is provided that reacts a methane-containing gas and an oxygen-containing gas in a reactor to provide a product stream comprising methanol and formaldehyde. The product stream is scrubbed using a process component absorbent. After scrubbing the product stream, unprocessed methane gas is mixed with the methane-containing gas for reprocessing through the reactor while methanol and formaldehyde is sent to a rectification process for removal.