[Brilliant]

methanol is part of the "hydrogen economy" though.

[cripplecreek]

I think we'll see a mixture of a lot of things fueling America in the future. Very diverse in the beginning but finally settling on two or three different things.

[bert]

check this out....
http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/05/EPSCoR/pdf/wed_am/Tennant.final050610%20EPSCoR.pdf

Eastman built plants in the early 80's to produce syn gas from coal. Methnanol is just a short step away. They have two big plants operating all the time and a third government research plant that might not be still operational. They built the plants so they could eliminate natural gas as feed stock

[mountainlyons]

Methanol destroys rubber hoses and corrodes metal. It causes reduced fuel mileage and has much less BTUs per gallon. It would cost a fortune to retrofit older vehicles and I doubt it would work in a modern vehicle! The city of Denver tried a tanker of it and within a couple of hours none of the police cars were running.

[FreePaul]

This article doesn't address the main problem with methanol. In order to produce large quantities of methanol it is necessary to rely on those evil companies who drill wells to produce natural gas. Or we could get those other evil companies who kill trees to double their efforts. No, methanol is evil because of the way it would be produced the same as any petroleum based product.

[mvpel]

So instead of volatile hydrogen, you wind up with poisonous methanol, which soaks through the skin and can cause kidney and nervous system damage, including blindess.

[RS]

"We were co-inventors of the direct methanol fuel cell."

(... and the co-patent holders primed and ready to score massively if we can talk people into using this ! )

[VOA]

bump

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

I think the methanol/ethanol solution is a dead end.

[taxcontrol]

you can take carbon dioxide and water, and if you have electric power, you can chemically reduce it into methanol.

Hmmm, I just bet that the process takes a LOT of energy. Ok boys, fire up those nuke plants.

[IronJack]

Ethanol is C2H5OH. Methane is CH4. Ethanol is basically two methane molecules sharing a hydrogen bond, with one of the carbons holding a hydroxyl radical instead of a hydrogen.

An alcohol is formed by hydroxylating an alkane, which is exactly what ethanol is -- hydroxylated ethane. Remove the -OH radical and it is a simple hydrocarbon, methane's older brother. I'm not sure how you'd go about adding the hydrogen to the ethane molecule, but doing so would render one ethane into two methanes, and it would all still originate with ethanol.

[Realism]

Im trying to escape the rising price of NG, not use more. This is no better than using NG to generate electricity. It's not renewable.

[upcountryhorseman]

The basic problem with hydrogen fuel cells is that it takes
as much energy to produce the hydrogen as is utilized from the hydrogen. Therefore a hydrogen fuel cell is an merely
an energy carrier.

[nuke rocketeer]

What's the energy cost of making methanol? That will determine if it can become competitive with gasoline/diesel.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Adding methanol to auto fuel would cut down on people stealing fuel by siphoning.

[RightWhale]

You see natural gas getting in short supply

For those who think about Peak Oil, which peak may come in the next decade, there is also a Peak Natural Gas, which peak may come in the decade following Peak Oil. There is also Peak Coal, which may come a couple decades following Peak Natural Gas. Natural gas is at present very far from getting in short supply.

[gwmoore]

The strange thing here is does it HAVE to be METHANOL????
How bout pure, water clear ETHANOL AKA White Lightnin', etc,
works great.......just eliminate the steenking tax....
I am sure the problems with the fuel line material and the gasketing can be worked out rather easy.......

We have the infrastructure to begin production immediately...
both big industry and independent production facilities could be in operation overnight...
problem solved..
Keep the faith for freedom and watch for them Revenooers..

Greg......

[Semi Civil Servant]

And, indeed, you can take carbon dioxide and water, and if you have electric power, you can chemically reduce it into methanol.

Regular...

or Premium?