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That sounds right
In the meantime, I'm in the market for a good donkey.
I don’t want to be a meth addict ...
One practical problem with methanol for use in internal combustion engines that I never hear mentioned is that methanol dissolves water like a shot. If you fill up a gas tank with methanol and let in set it absorbs a lot of water in a week or two.
I cannot eat coal, oil, or oil shale. I can eat corn and sugar cane. At present, the world grows just enough food to feed everyone at present levels of caloric intake. Even then, some people are so poor they cannot afford enough food to satisfy their hunger.
It is worse than foolish to contort the economics of fuels so that fuels made from food is less expensive than fuel made from something we cannot eat. Sadly, in the US, the people who scold us with their heightened expressions of concern for the “poor” are in with the same crowd that prefers we allow the price of some food grains double because of their energy policies.
thanks, bfl
I recommend folks read Energy Victory.
Wood...Methanol can be made out of Algore?
We have untold resources in uranium; we also have several Persian Gulfs' worth of oil in the ground, not only offshore or in Alaska, but in those oil shale deposits in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and even North Dakota. All of this can be accessed with off-the-shelf technology. No science-fictional breakthroughs are necessary.
Alcohol-based electricity generation represents desperation, not advancement. It is less efficient (and dirtier, in the long run) than either nuclear or hydrocarbon-fueled electricity generation. Not to mention fuel for cars.
Don't buy into anything Sheik al-Gore is peddling. It isn't even good drugs.
Spent Liquor Gasification.
Do a search on it.
Spent Black Liquor is a byproduct of papermaking. In Escanaba Mich, they plan to build a plant that uses Spent Black Liquor to make bio fuels (synthetic gas and diesel) and that plant will produce up to 13 MILLION GALLONS of bio fuel per year using a byproduct of papermaking from ONE PAPERMILL.
Now times that by the number of papermills in the USA that could convert to making such a product.
Fact is...we dont need all that oil to drive our buggies.
bring it on
“Methanol” sounds speedier than “ethanol”.
If this was as good as the author says we’d already be doing it. There are E85 cars on the road today. What isn’t said is that methanol doesn’t have as much energy as gasoline, so you don’t get as good mileage. Given that a gallon of gasoline now costs $3, then methanol costs ($1.6/67%)=$2.5 and is cost competitive even in a mix with gasoline, but not by a lot.
Bump
Methanol corrodes aluminum.
Not an alternative. Not enough energy density.
Back in 2005, I posted a paper “After petroleum is gone, what then?”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1465729/posts
It spelled out several of the points that Zubrin makes here...
Synthesis gas. Gasification of natural gas and other light hydrocarbons is termed “reforming.” Natural gas is much easier to convert to synthesis gas than coal, since coal is a solid containing considerable ash. The energy required for gasification either can be supplied by partial oxidation of the natural gas, or by heating a natural gas and steam mixture in a furnace called a reformer. Production of ammonia, methanol, acetic acid, etc., is accomplished in many national and international facilities today by means of these steam reformers producing synthesis gas.
Synthesis gas can be processed into a wide variety of liquid fuels. Shell is producing premium diesel in Malaysia from natural gas liquids. FT synthesis is also employed in South Africa SASOL facilities. Methanol is produced directly from synthesis gas today. In theory, methanol is a very good SI engine fuel, but it is not widely used.
Methanol can be converted directly to high-octane gasoline by the Mobil M-gasoline process. This process was to be commercialized in New Zealand, but low petroleum prices have confused the situation. Synthesis gas can be converted into dimethyl ether, which is a good diesel fuel, whereas methanol is not.
...
There are two broad technologies for gas to liquid (GTL) to produce a synthetic petroleum product, (syncrude): a direct conversion from gas, and an indirect conversion via synthesis gas (syngas)
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Indirect conversion can be carried out via Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis or via methanol.
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Conversion of the syngas to liquid hydrocarbon is a chain growth reaction of carbon monoxide and hydrogen on the surface of a heterogeneous catalyst. The catalyst is either iron- or cobalt-based and the reaction is highly exothermic. The temperature, pressure and catalyst determine whether a light or heavy syncrude is produced.
For example at 330C mostly gasoline and olefins are produced whereas at 180 to 250C mostly diesel and waxes are produced.
...
There are two methanol-based routes to gasoline. Mobil’s methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) process based on the ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst was commercialised in 1985 in a plant now owned by Methanex in New Zealand. Commercial applications of the MTG process are now anticipated to use a fluid bed reactor with their higher efficiency and lower capital cost.
There are catalysts for converting syngas into a mixture of methanol and butanol. Butanol is especially useful - it has a volumetric energy density almost equal to gasoline, it does not attract or blend with water, and it can be blended into diesel fuel at about 35%, which reduces emissions without reducing MPG too much.
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I haven't read this yet, but too many people misconstrue hydrogen as a new energy source, but it's not designed to be that. Hydrogen is only one method of making energy portable. Any non-oil method of portable energy will reduce our reliance on foreign oil and make the air cleaner. I tend to like hydrogen because the power comes from highly-efficient power plants and not inefficient internal combustion engines. Compared to alcohol the total energy consumed should be less.