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| Welcome to the Zero-M website |
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| Zero-m Ltd is a clean fuels and vehicle conversions company and a winner of the Government's “Green Fuel Challenge” Award. See Statutory Instrument 2003 granted to Zero-m to enable the methanol-based fuel project. |
 Under this Government approved Green Fuel Challenge Statutory Instrument Zero-m has developed and proven clean, new and advanced methanol-based fuels and the simple vehicle conversions and distribution systems necessary to enable their rapid introduction into the UK's current fleet of commercial transport vehicles.
(The photograph shows Peter Dodd, left, MD of Zero-m Ltd, with Zero-m's methanol powered Ford Galaxy MPV demonstration vehicle, explaining the benefits of methanol-based transport fuels to Lord Sainsbury, centre, then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry with responsibility for science and innovation in the House of Lords, and David Jamieson, then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of the Department for Transport.) |
| The Green Fuels Challenge |
 The UK Government (The Department for Transport [DfT] and HM Treasury [HM Revenue and Customs]) initiated the Green Fuel Challenge in 2001 to identify fuels which, in both the short and longer term, would reduce emissions of harmful local pollutants and reduce greenhouse gases and other negative environmental impacts from transport such as noise. Ministers also identified that increasing use of green fuels will allow the United Kingdom transport system to reduce dependence on crude oil and its dramatic price fluctuations.
Paul Boateng, then Minister for Customs & Excise, HM Treasury being shown under the bonnet of one of Zero-m's first methanol powered vehicles - the iconic London Cab. (See Left)
Launching the Green Fuel Challenge, the Treasury Financial Secretary at the time, Stephen Timms, said: “The Public and the Government want viable green fuels. The best fuels from the Green Fuel Challenge will be given significant duty reductions to achieve this aim” |
| In Spring 2010 Zero-m submitted its final report to Government confirming: |
* methanol is a technically superior and economically viable long-term transport fuel and is available to introduce now
* the use of methanol fuels will reduce harmful tailpipe emissions and will lead to major carbon savings
* methanol can be made renewably more efficiently than current biofuels and also enables the hydrogen economy
* Using methanol fuels will reduce dependence on crude oil and its dramatic price fluctuations
* CO2 from carbon capture can be transformed into methanol using renewable electricity |
| Why introduce methanol based fuels now? |
| Methanol has always been known as a safe, clean, potentially renewable road transport fuel but low oil prices and a historical anomaly in the way UK Fuel Excise duty is calculated have prevented its successful commercial introduction. The Zero-m Green Fuel Challenge Report confirms the time and the oil price environment are now right for methanol to play a major role in diversifying fuel supply, reducing tailpipe emissions and decarbonising road transport. |
| Zero-m is not alone in recognising methanol as the green fuel of choice for the future. |
| In 2006, Nobel Laureate Professor George Olah of the University of Southern California conclusively established methanol's ability …”to replace conventional oil and be made renewably, to carry and store energy and hydrogen, and to transform CO2 from a global warming liability into a raw material for a methanol economy.” |
| It only remains for the Government now to give the significant duty reductions foreseen by HM Treasury when launching the Green Fuel Challenge to enable its introduction. |
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