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| Methanol |
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It is well known in the fuel and auto industries that methanol is an excellent, clean, potentially renewable, fuel:
•Much cleaner than diesel – virtually no particles or NOx
•Can be made efficiently from renewable feedstocks
•Safer than petrol
The fuel is used today as a safer alternative to petrol in the Indianapolis racing series in the US, and in dragster racing for its power. Methanol based fuels have been demonstrated in just about every conceivable engine type many times since the early 1900s.
It is safer to handle, store, and use as fuel, than Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), and gaseous or liquid Hydrogen.
Due to its low emissions and its ability to be made from non oil sources, concerted efforts were made to introduce the fuel in 100% form, and in 15% (M15) and 85% (M85) petrol blends, in America during the 70's and 80's, for both petrol and diesel substitution. These efforts faded away by the late 80's due to the falling price of oil and the lack of duty shelter in the USA.
Despite this, methanol has a negligible presence in today's fuel market for two main reasons, a), the oil industry is not interested in providing it, and, b) the automotive industry is not interested in methanol fuels because the oil industry will not provide it.
Zero-m have identified how to supply the fuel direct to customers economically, and a way to create demand growth with a retrofit strategy, and have approached the UK Government to lobby for an appropriate tax treatment for methanol based fuels.
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Methanol , also known as methyl alcohol, carbinol, wood alcohol or wood spirits, is a chemical compound with chemical formula CH3OH. It is the simplest alcohol, and is a light, volatile, colourless, flammable, poisonous liquid with a distinctive odor that is somewhat milder and sweeter than ethanol (ethyl alcohol). It is used as an antifreeze, solvent, fuel, and as a denaturant for ethyl alcohol.
Methanol is produced naturally in the anaerobic metabolism of many varieties of bacteria. As a result, there is a small fraction of methanol vapor in the atmosphere. Over the course of several days, atmospheric methanol is oxidized by oxygen with the help of sunlight to carbon dioxide and water.
Methanol burns in air forming carbon dioxide and water:
2 CH3OH + 3 O2 = 2 CO2 + 4 H2O
Methanol is often called wood alcohol because it was once produced chiefly as a byproduct of the destructive distillation of wood. It is now produced synthetically by a multi-step process. In short, natural gas and steam are reformed in a furnace to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide; then, hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases react under pressure in the presence of a catalyst. The reforming step is endothermic and the synthesis step is exothermic.
Today, synthesis gas is most commonly produced from the methane component in natural gas rather than from coal. Three processes are commercially practiced. At moderate pressures of 1 to 2 MPa (10–20 atm) and high temperatures (around 850 °C), methane reacts with steam on a nickel catalyst to produce syngas
Although natural gas is the most economical and widely used feedstock for methanol production, other feedstocks can be used. Where natural gas is unavailable, light petroleum products can be used in its place. The South African firm Sasol produces methanol using synthesis gas from coal.
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| Liquefied natural gas or LNG is natural gas that has been processed to remove either valuable components e.g. helium, or those impurities that could cause difficulty downstream, e.g. water, and heavy hydrocarbons and then condensed into a liquid at almost atmospheric pressure (Maximum Transport Pressure set around 25 kPa) by cooling it to approximately -163 degrees Celsius. LNG is transported by specially designed cryogenic sea vessels and cryogenic road tankers; and stored in specially designed tanks. LNG is about 1/614th the volume of natural gas at standard temperature and pressure (STP), making it much more cost-efficient to transport over long distances where pipelines do not exist. Where moving natural gas by pipelines is not possible or economical, it can be transported by LNG vessels, where the most common tank types are membrane(prismatic), Moss Rosenberg (spheres) or Self-Supporting Prismathic Type. |
| CNG (http://www.ngva.co.uk/index/fuseaction/site.articleDetail/con_id/5029) |
'In order that natural gas can be used by CNG powered vehicles, it is stored under pressure on the vehicle at pressures up to 250 bar (3600 pounds per square inch). CNG cylinders are manufactured to internationally approved standards and made from composite materials with the advantage of high strength, low weight and low maintenance. Vehicle range depends on the size of on board storage but is as high as 550 miles for some heavy goods vehicles running on gas in the UK
CNG filling stations (see photo) also have some storage capacity to help ensure that vehicles can be filled quickly. Typically, it takes less to fill a vehicle with CNG than it would with the equivalent amount of diesel'.
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