[z3n]

Yeah, I don’t get it. What makes methanol better. Methane is the primary fuel for natural gas. In fact, if you have pure CH4 doesn’t it burn even cleaner?

[NorthMountain]

If the heavier components (ethane, propane, butane) are present in any significant quantity, they are fractioned out of the natural gas before it is delivered to the customer. They’re valuable!

“Natural gas” as delivered to the customer is nearly pure methane. The characteristic smell is a mercaptan added to make the odorless hydrocarbon detectable by humans.

[jimfr]

their partially “burning” the methane to get methanol, thereby wasting some of the energy in the methane. I don’t know how they are performing their calculations to be able to say it results in less CO2.

[Tell It Right]

"Yeah, I don’t get it. What makes methanol better. Methane is the primary fuel for natural gas. In fact, if you have pure CH4 doesn’t it burn even cleaner?"

You're thinking in terms of physical science, not political science. Now that "researches" have "found" a "use" for methane it triggers Fuhrer Brandon to permit us to drill and process natural gas. He no longer has to forbid us from doing so.

See how much better political science is than physical science?

[Carl Vehse]

When burned completely, both methane and methanol produce carbon dioxide and water:

CH₄ + 2 O₂ --> CO₂ + 2 H₂O

CH₃OH + 3/2 O₂ --> CO₂ + 2 H₂O