Exhaustion: A Guide to Transportation Emissions

What is methanol?

Methanol is a type of alcohol, currently made from natural gas but which can also be made using biomass (wood waste or garbage) or coal. Unlike petroleum based hydrocarbon fuels like gasoline, that are made up of only hydrogen and carbon, methanol is an oxygen-containing fuel. This bound oxygen results in methanol having significantly different physical and chemical properties from typical hydrocarbon fuels. Methanol has been used for decades in a wide variety of industrial and consumer applications, and has been used as a racing fuel in Indy cars, dragsters and other high power applications. Only recently has methanol been investigated for use in ordinary cars and light trucks, and as a replacement for diesel fuel in heavy-duty trucks and buses.

Methanol and the environment

When used in a properly prepared engine, methanol could combust more completely than gasoline. This would result in lower levels of the exhaust emissions that contribute to urban pollution and global warming. Methanol contains no aromatic compounds and therefore produces no benzene emissions. Full analysis of all of the energy and materials required to produce and distribute methanol must be done, however, before the true environmental impact of large scale methanol use can be determined.

Methanol and the transportation industry

Canada's current transportation system primarily uses fuels derived from oil. In the early 1980s, methanol was seen as one possible replacement for conventional gasoline and diesel fuel. Methanol is one of two currently available alcohol fuel alternatives to gasoline or diesel fuels: the other being ethanol. Methanol and ethanol have similar, but not identical, properties and both are different in many ways from conventional hydrocarbon fuels.

Alcohol fuels such as methanol can be used in two ways in transportation applications:

Neat Fuels - vehicle and engine systems can be altered to run exclusively on methanol as opposed to gasoline (the most advanced technology, known as flexi-fuel or variable fuel, allows an engine to operate on straight methanol or straight gasoline — or any mixture of the two — without re-tuning the engine). For safety reasons, the content of methanol is limited to 85% maximum of methanol (referred to as M85). Methanol has a higher octane rating than gasoline, which means engines optimized to use this alternative fuel could improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide; or
Fuel Blends - methanol can be mixed in small amounts (up to 5%) with gasoline to extend or improve the performance of conventional fuels for use in vehicles that have not been modified in any way. Methanol is more corrosive than gasoline and requires additives to reduce this effect. Unfortunately, methanol also separates from gasoline in the presence of water and therefore requires a co-solvent such as ethanol, isopropanol, isobutanol or tertiary butyl alcohol, along with stringent handling procedures, to avoid water contamination.

The future of methanol

Canada has abundant raw materials for the production of alcohol fuels such as methanol. Tests of pure alcohol fuels have also proven successful even in severe cold winter and hot summer conditions. The greatest obstacle facing alcohol fuels, however, is availability. Methanol is currently distributed widely as a chemical commodity with very strict controls on quality. Wide distribution and availability of fuel methanol will be required before this alternative fuel can play a role in the transportation sector. Research is currently under way to reduce the cost of methanol production.

In the United States, methanol fuelling stations are available in California. The famous Indy 500 auto racing circuit continues to require methanol as the only fuel that can be used at Indy races.