Re: Methanol -- back to the future

Uncle Ben wrote:
Today, methanol is dismissed as too dangerous to use. It is quite
toxic to humans, causing symptoms like blindness and further, multiple
sclerosis, and death. It burns with an almost invisible flame, which
is quite dangerous. Consider the liability problem!

But these problems were solved a decade ago. Just make M85 to
discourage drinkers and make the flame visible. Make dispensers that
won't go in the wrong places. Etc.

Consider the virtues: In Central America, where natural gas was
cheap, they made methanol for $0.25 per gallon in the 1990's. It is
no longer that cheap, but still it can be made quite inexpensively,
compared to corn-fed ethanol. You can make methanol easily from
sawdust, much less switch-grass. You can make it from old newspapers
or from garbage dumps.

Pure ethanol is considered too dangerous for the same reasons as pure methanol. Most of the problems go away, though, when mixed with gasoline to give E85 or M85. IIRC, the changes to a typical car to take either are relatively minor if done at the factory (but illegal if done aftermarket, thanks to the EPA), and should allow either to be used in practice, which means the market could sort out which was cheaper to mass produce in any given month.

I don't know if a non-flex-fuel car can take M10/M15, though; all can take at least E10 and pumps in many places are up to E15 today. Also, ethanol has better energy density than methanol due to longer carbon chains, which means methanol-mixed fuels will have worse mileage than ethanol-mixed ones. The methanol's price needs to be substantially lower than ethanol (or gasoline, which is denser yet) for people to tolerate worse performance.

S
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Relevant Pages

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