Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the potential market share loss from growing methanol fuel use, the
major oil companies began introducing cleaner “reformulated” gaso-
lines that eroded many of the clean air benefits of using methanol.
Ultimately, only four methanol FFV models moved from prototype
demonstration to commercial availability (Ford Taurus 1993-1998
model years; Chrysler Dodge Spirit/Plymouth Acclaim 1993-1994
model years; Chrysler Concorde/Intrepid 1994-1995 model years;
and the General Motors Lumina 1991-1993 model years). By the
mid-1990s, automakers had already abandoned further development
work on methanol, turning instead to work on compressed natural gas
and battery electrics. Today, China has picked up the methanol torch,
with over 2.3 billion gallons methanol blended in gasoline (M-15, M-
30, M-85, and M-100) in 2011 for use in passenger cars, taxis, and bus
fleets. Chinese automakers are introducing new models of methanol
FFVs, while national fuel standards for methanol fuel blending have
been adopted to grow the market in an organized manner. China now
views coal-based methanol as a strategic transportation fuel.
This in an important point as the use of methanol as a transportation
fuel offers a viable means of transitioning from fossil-based fuels to
renewable fuels. Liquid secondary energy carriers have a much bigger
market potential than gaseous hydrogen (or liquid hydrogen, t,
253
C)
(30). Methanol can be produced from natural gas or coal in the short-
term, from biomass in the midterm, and from captured atmospheric CO
2
and renewably generated hydrogen in the long term.
The cost to produce methanol from natural gas is around $0.40 per
gallon (Zerbe, 1991), and even discounting for methanol's lower
energy content, an equivalent pump price to gasoline for methanol
would be 25-50 cents per gallon less than the cost of regular gasoline
at the pump. A 2010 study from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (Cohn, 2010) found that “With deployment of plants
using current technology, on an energy-equivalent basis, methanol
could be produced from U.S. natural gas at a lower cost than gasoline
at current oil prices.” This interdisciplinary study went on to recom-
mend that the U.S. government implement an open fuel standard
requiring automakers to provide tri-flex-fuel vehicles capable of
running on ethanol, methanol, and gasoline.
