Methanol fuel engine technology

K. H. Heilman, G. K. Piotrowski, and R. M. Schaefer, Start Catalyst Systems Employing Heated Catalyst Technology for Control of Emissions from Methanol-Fueled Vehicles, SAE 93082, Society of Automotive Engineers, Warrendale, Pa., 1993. 

Technological changes in the manufacture of power sources are required if they are to run on alternative fuels. The development of alternative fuels depends on automotive manufacturers making alternative fuel engines available while fuel suppliers produce and distribute fuels for these vehicles. Flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), which are also known as variable fuel vehicles, (VFVs) are designed to use several fuels. Most of the major automobile manufacturers have developed FFV prototypes and many of these use ethanol or methanol as well as gasoline. 

Bell, B. (1998). Looking beyond the internal combustion engine the promises of methanol fuel cell vehicles. Paper presented at "Fuel Cell Technology Conference, London, September". IQPC Ltd., London. 

C. Lamy, J.M. Leger, S. Srinivason, Direct methanol fuel cells from a 20th century electrochemists dream to a 21st century engineering technology, in Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry, J. O. M. Bockris, (ed), Vol. 34, Chap. 3, Plenum, New York, 1999. 

Patit P. Kundu is Professor in the Department of Polymer Science Technology at Calcutta University, India. He obtained his PhD in 1997 from IIT, Kharagpur, India. He has 67 research papers to his credit in international journals along with ten papers in national/international conferences, contributed 2 book chapters, and one patent. His research interest centers on the fields of synthesis and characterization of oil based rubber and nano-composites, microbial fuel cell, direct methanol fuel cell, microbial biodegradation of waste polyolefin fUm, tissue engineering and gene therapy. 

Many properties of methanol are of little importance to its chemical applications but can be critical to its success as a fuel Table 10 lists a variety of physico-chemical parameters that must be considered in the context of transportation fuel Broadly, such considerations center around engine technology, fuel handling, and human exposure risk. 

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