Methanol, the fuel in waiting

[Peter1469]

Methanol, the fuel in waiting (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/10/30/methanol__the_fuel_in_waiting_124487.html)

Methanol can be used in modern engines with minor upgrades (~$200USD) and is cheaper than gasoline after considering it takes more methanol to travel the distance of one gallon of gasoline. About a dollar cheaper than current gas prices.

Understandably the large oil companies, OPEC, Russia, and Venezuela use all means available to oppose methanol as part of America's transportation fuel strategy.


Methanol is a bit of a mystery. It is the simplest form of hydrocarbon, one oxygen atom attached to a simple methane molecule. Therefore it burns. It is manufactured in small quantities, but production could be ramped up at any time.


It’s the fuel that would make the best and most convenient substitute for gasoline in automobiles and small trucks. It has about two-thirds the energy value of gasoline, but its high octane rating pushes this up above 70 percent. It is a liquid at room temperature and therefore would fit into our current gasoline infrastructure – as opposed to compressed natural gas or electric vehicles, which require a whole new delivery system.


It is also much less cumbersome than corn ethanol, which now requires nearly half the annual corn crop produced in the U.S. to provide only 3 percent of our energy needs. Methanol made from natural gas would now sell for about $1 less per gallon than gasoline. Methanol can also be made from food waste, municipal garbage and just about any other organic source.



Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/10/30/methanol__the_fuel_in_waiting_124487.html#ixzz3KhC Q02tI
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[Crepitus]

Probably not gonna happen. Corn farmers got too many lobbiests.

[Peter1469]

Probably not gonna happen. Corn farmers got too many lobbiests.

The Corn lobby did more to hurt alternative fuels than anyone else out there.

[Crepitus]

The Corn lobby did more to hurt alternative fuels than anyone else out there.
Ayup.

[Polecat]

Methanol is extremely poisonous. Toxicity can be realized from inhalation of the fumes or even absorption through the skin. This would be an issue should it be used as a replacement for gasoline.

[Peter1469]

Methanol is extremely poisonous. Toxicity can be realized from inhalation of the fumes or even absorption through the skin. This would be an issue should it be used as a replacement for gasoline.

Gasoline is also poisonous.

[del]

Gasoline is also poisonous.

methanol is a lot more toxic

[Peter1469]

methanol is a lot more toxic


Don't breath it in then. The emissions are lower than for gasoline engines.

[del]

Don't breath it in then. The emissions are lower than for gasoline engines.

and no one will ever spill it....

lol

[Crepitus]

methanol is a lot more toxic
No, it isn't.

Wikipedia
US maximum allowed exposure in air (40 h/week) is 1900 mg/m³ for ethanol, 900 mg/m³ for gasoline, and 1260 mg/m³ for methanol. However, it is much less volatile than gasoline, and therefore has lower evaporative emissions, producing a lower exposure risk for an equivalent spill. While methanol offers somewhat different toxicity exposure pathways, the effective toxicity is no worse than those of benzene or gasoline, and methanol poisoning is far easier to treat successfully. One substantial concern is that methanol poisoning generally must be treated while it is still asymptomatic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymptomatic) for full recovery.Inhalation risk is mitigated by a characteristic pungent odor. At concentrations greater than 2,000 ppm (0.2%) it is generally quite noticeable, however lower concentrations may remain undetected while still being potentially toxic over longer exposures, and may still present a fire/explosion hazard. Again, this is similar to gasoline and ethanol; standard safety protocols exist for methanol and are very similar to those for gasoline and ethanol.
Use of methanol fuel reduces the exhaust emissions of certain hydrocarbon-related toxins such as benzene and 1,3 butadiene, and dramatically reduces long term groundwater pollution caused by fuel spills. Unlike benzene-family fuels, methanol will rapidly and non-toxically biodegrade with no long-term harm to the environment as long as it is sufficiently diluted.

[Bob]

Missing part

Yet somehow methanol has got caught up in old EPA regulations that make it illegal to burn in car engines – even though it is hardly different from the corn ethanol that now fills one-tenth of our gas tanks.
Methanol’s main feedstocks are coal and natural gas and for a long time that was seen as a problem.
“Methanol wasn’t practical at the time because the price of natural gas was so high and we seemed to be running out of it,” says Yossie Hollander, whose Fuel Freedom Foundation has been promoting the use of methanol for some time. “But now that gas prices have come down, it makes perfect sense to use it to make methanol. We could do away with the $300 billion a year we still spend on importing oil.”
The EPA granted California an exemption during the 1990s that allowed 15,000 methanol-powered cars on the road. The experiment was a success and customers were happy, but natural gas prices reached $11 per million BTUs in 2005 and the whole thing was called off. Only a few months later, the fracking revolution started to bring down the price of natural gas. It now sells at $4 per million BTUs, yet the EPA has not yet publicly reconsidered its long-standing ban on methanol.


Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/10/30/methanol__the_fuel_in_waiting_124487.html#ixzz3KhZ yWO9O
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