Methanol as a motor fuel

Using estimates of proven reserves and commitments to energy and chemical uses of gas resources, the net surplus of natural gas in a number of different countries that might be available for major fuel methanol projects has been determined. These are more than adequate to support methanol as a motor fuel. 

Methanol can be nsed as one possible replacement for conventional motor fuels. The use of methanol as a motor fuel received attention during the oil crises of the 1970s due to its availability and low cost. Methanol is an attractive fuel it is hquid at room temperature, it has limited toxicity, high energy density, and is an inexpensive energy source (Shukla et al., 1998). Methanol is a favored fuel as it has twice the energy density of liquid hydrogen and since it is a liquid at normal ambient temperatures and it can thus be stored and transported easily and inexpensively (Collins, 2001). 

Methanol. If one takes as an illustration the many propo-sals (16,1y) to use forest biomass to produce methanol as a motor fuel the R D priorities and the barriers can be identified. The production route is ... 

California Energy Commission, Methanol as a Motor Fuel Review of the Issues Related to Air Quality, Demand, Supply, Cost, Consumer Acceptance and Health and Safety, Pub. P500-89-002, Sacramento, Calif., April 1989. 

Methanol itself can be used as a transportation fuel just as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and ethanol however, direct use of methanol as a motor fuel would require nontrivial engine modifications and substantial changes in lubrication system. This is why methanol to gasoline is quite appealing [69,73]. 

Alcohols show very little tendency to knock and the use of methanol as a motor-fuel blending material has received considerable publicity. 

All evidence points clearly in the direction that in the USA the legislative bodies, at least in a number of states, will enforce the use of neat methanol as a motor fuel. For California alone, this would mean that methanol consumption in motor fuel service there would be two and a half times as high as the current total methanol production in the world, and it would only be natural to build methanol plants in the USA whose capacities would be many times larger than today. This would considerably reduce the capital cost per ton of methanol, and the price differential between natural gas and coal would have a much greater effect on methanol production costs than with today s plant sizes. 

To test the feasibility of methanol as a motor fuel, California has operated several hundred vehicles on methanol since 1980. Because accessibility to methanol is limited, cars are now being prepared that can run on methanol or gasoline. These vehicles are being tested on a large scale in California. So if you live in southern California, in a few years your neighborhood gas station may actually be pumping methanol. 

Methanol is used as a starting material for the synthesis of acetic acid and for many types of adhesives, fibers, and plastics. It is also used (and such use may increase) as a motor fuel. Methanol is highly toxic to humans and can lead to blindness and death if ingested. 

Synthesis gas is the starting material for numerous chemical products and it can be processed to hydrogen if desired. It is the intermediate step in the synthesis of methanol to serve as a motor fuel. 

Methanol can itself be used as a motor fuel. It has been used as a racing fuel for some time. Its use as a fuel does present some special problems. Methanol is toxic, hygroscopic, and (for a given volume of fuel) contains about half the energy content of gasoline. There are, therefore, good reasons to convert methanol to gasoline. 

Natural gas, which is mostly methane, is widely used as a fuel. In the chemical industry, methane is used heavily as a raw material for making important products that include acetylene, ammonia, ethanol, and methanol its chlorination also yields carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, methyl chloride, and methylene chloride. It is used to produce carbon black for use in the manufacture of rubber products and printing inks. The burning of high-purity methane is used to make carbon black of special quality for electronic devices. Natural gas has seen limited use as a motor fuel handled as a compressed gas in high pressure cylinders or liquid dewars. 

United States. Another example is the use of some of the natural gas formerly wasted during recovery of Middle Eastern oil to make methanol and other chemicals. Direct use of methanol as a motor vehicle fuel is being studied, but it is not known when or even if such use will be significant in terms of methanol usage or decreased petroleum usage. 

The synthesis of methanol is of great importance because methanol can be used directly as a motor fuel, mixed with gasoline for fuel use, or converted to other organic compounds. The synthesis reaction, carried out at about 500 K, is... 

Methanol is the most extensively produced alcohol. It is used in the synthesis of other organic chemicals and as a solvent, but potentially its most important use may be as a motor fuel (recall Section 7-9). 

Mobil Oil Corporation has developed a process on a pilot scale that can successfully convert methanol into 96 octane gasoline. Although methanol can be used directiy as a transportation fuel, conversion to gasoline would eliminate the need to modify engines and would also eliminate some of the problems encountered using gasoline—methanol blends (see Alcohol fuels Gasoline and other motor fuels). 

Alcohols such as methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol can be used as alternate motor fuels. Practically, any of the orgaitic molecules of the alcohol family can be used as a fuel. However, only methanol and ethanol fuels are techitically and economically suitable for internal combustion engines (ICEs). 

Gasoline substitution. Two General Motors vehicles are operating in their normal work, using methanol as a fuel. One has a 6 cylinder engine, the other a 4 cylinder engine. Modifications were ... 

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