Fueling Engines with a Methanol & DME Economy

A Methanol economy energized with methanol & dimethyl ether DME as replacement fuels for gasoline and diesel fuel (jet fuel) as primary liquid and gaseous fuel energy and for energy storage, transportation fuel, and as raw material inputs for synthetic hydrocarbons production and the myriad of petrochemical products made with this virtually ubiquitous petroleum or crude oil fossil fuels today.

MeOH & DME are a compelling alternative to a far more expensive hydrogen economy or and less sustainable ethanol economy.

Methanol produced from a variety of sources (natural gas, coal, oil shale, tar sands) as well as agricultural products and municipal waste, wood, and biomass.

For decarbonization Methanol & DME can also be made from chemical recycling of carbon dioxide or CO2.

Nobel prize laureate George A. Olah advocated a methanol economy!

Methanol a liquid fuel like gasoline and can be used as a fuel in existing gasoline fueled ground vehicles with slight modification to the fueling system and ECU tuning.

DME a gas like propane stored in metal or composite tanks, and can be used to fuel existing diesel engine vehicles with a modest conversion modification of the fueling system and ECU tuning.

Methanol produced at industrial scales as a bio-fuel can be made cheaply at the trillions of gallons scale needed to phased out gasoline worldwide, and can be made very inexpensively at high volume in existing oil refineries upgraded with the needed modifications.

DME can similarly be produced cheaply at a trillion of gallons high volume scale at existing oil refineries and make use of propane distribution equipment, tanks, pumps and similar, with a small amount of synthetic oil added to lubricate gaskets and seals.

DME was the first refrigerant gas, and still used along with propane as mixes to move heat around in pressurized cooling systems as the low boiling point working fluid.

DME an excellent solvent, works as a MAP gas replacement, to freeze off warts, in engine starting fluid, and smells nice, though very flammable. DME much cleaner burning with a pale blue flame, like methanol, butane, propane, very clean compared to the sooty flame of gasoline or soot formed when diesel burned in engines as PM or particular matter emissions.

Hydrocarbon Superlatives Hard to Beat

Fossil fuels are so well developed, cost effective, enabling vehicles to start in low temperatures, widely available, relatively cheap for the chemical energy content as unleaded gasoline and diesel, and provide a tough competition in terms of the scale of production and cost per unit to any emerging incumbent e-fuels or biofuels or alternative fuels. 

H2 Expensive / Like Paying $18/gal or $5.50 per liter for gasoline // 

Hydrogen the most expensive of all the fuel types because its expensive and hard to pressurized, leaks through most metal bottles and causes metal embrittlement, and very energy intensive and hard to liquify and keep liquid at ultra low temperatures in expensive specialized rocket cryogenic H2 fueling systems in large insulate refrigerated cryocooler enhanced spherical storage tanks by NASA and similar, think nation state budgets for aerospace, not an affordable fuel for ground vehicles or regular roadway transportation automobiles. 

Fuel Blending Solution 

Ethanol and methanol and blends of gasoline with ethanol and methanol work as fuels and sold as such for use in engines compatible with E10 and M15 and E85 and M85 respectively. As corrosive alcohols, they damage aluminum, so the fueling system must not contain aluminum, and must be made with copper nickel and stainless steel. Also the fuel alcohols damage some kinds of plastics and gasket materials commonly used in existing gasoline and diesel fuel systems. The automaker must deliberately design alcohol resistant fueling setups to enable flex fuel use of ethanol and methanol blends mixed with gasoline. 

Ethanol Free Gasoline Stabilized

For many years I have been fueling my vehicles with ethanol-free or E0 ethanol while most local gas stations sell gasoline with up to 10% ethanol. There is an app for Android or iOS called PureGas where you can locate a fueling station nearby that sells pure unleaded gasoline without ethanol. 

Pure gas works better in small engines with carburetors, in pre 2003 on-road vehicle engines, has more chemical energy and makes the tank, fuel pump, likes, injectors, seals and gaskets last longer. I also add red oily fuel stabilizer to gasoline tanks & cans which increases gasolines shelf life from 3 months to 2 years. I really like propane and butane as clean burning fuels too! 

EV Range Confusion 

I tried 3 different battery electric cars with 24, 30, and 40kWh of battery and was very disappointed with the real world range in winter weather and on topographically variable mountainous roads nearby and when driving in cold winter weather with the HVAC at full blast to defrost the windows and warm the cabin. I tell people that BEV or electric vehicles with battery energy that the stated new battery range more like 40% of what the automaker is claiming in worst case winter mountain pass climbing with full HVAC use. 

EV Battery Fading 

EV batteries fade with time, meaning the range per charge decreases also. For EV's to compete against gasoline fueled vehicles they need 150-400kWh of battery and have to be able to be charged to 80 in under 10 minutes on MW level 4 and level 5 DC chargers that are much more powerful than the best L3 DC public chargers today. 

Slow EV Charging 

A typical on road gasoline powered passenger car can be refueled with 300-400 mi of fuel range in less than 7 minutes at a typical unleaded gasoline retail station. That's hard competition for slower EV charging speeds that are more commonly around 30 minutes or slower for the same range added. This means that people spend about 4X more time fiddling with charging EV's than they do fueling gasoline powered vehicles. 

Though many people who own battery electric vehicles also park inside garages with L1 or L2 slow chargers that can charge all night long and add plenty of commuting range by the next morning for most daily commutes, though EV's are still terrible for road trips, largely because a lot of public EV charges don't work or are broken and needing repairs. 

Understanding Methanol via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_fuel

Methanol fuel (MeOH) an alternative biofuel for internal combustion engines, often in combination with gasoline for better cold start performance.

Methanol(CH3OH) less expensive to produce sustainably than ethanol fuel, the E10 part of regular unleaded gasoline made from GMO corn in the USA. Methanol toxic to humans like gasoline and has lower energy density, but also safer for the environment than gasoline, is an anti-freeze agent, prevents dirt and grime buildup within the engine, has a higher flashpoint in case of fire, and produces horsepower equivalent to that of super high-octane gasoline in higher compression engines optimized for methanol fueling.

MeOh can readily be used in most modern engines with a simple software setting tweak and occasionally a change in a cheap fuel seal or line. To prevent vapor lock in any possible circumstances due to being a simple, pure fuel, a small percentage of other fuel or certain additives can be included.

Methanol (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group) made from fossil fuels and renewable resources, in particular natural gas and coal gas, and biomass, and can also and importantly be synthesized from CO2 (carbon dioxide) captured from combustion or the atmosphere. The vast majority of methanol produced globally is currently made with gas and coal.

Many large commercial MeOh production projects, big capital investments, and the production of green-methanol increasing steadily throughout 2023. Methanol fuel is currently used by racing cars in many countries and has seen increasing adoption by the maritime industry.

Bio-methanol, also known as green-methanol, may be produced by gasification of organic materials to synthesis gas followed by conventional methanol synthesis. This route can offer renewable methanol production from biomass at efficiencies up to 75%. Widespread production by this route has a proposed potential to offer methanol fuel at a low cost and with benefits to the environment (Hagen, SABD & Olah).

Increasingly, methanol fuel being produced using renewable energy and carbon dioxide as a feedstock.

Carbon Recycling International, an Icelandic-American company, completed the first commercial scale renewable methanol plant in 2011. As of 2018, Enerkem has been producing bio-methanol through the conversion and gasification of municipal solid waste at its Edmonton facility. As of July 2023, construction for the $1 billion Varennes Carbon Recycling Plant, producing biofuel methanol through non-recyclable and timber waste.

During the OPEC 1973 oil crisis, Reed and Lerner (1973) proposed methanol from coal as a proven fuel with well-established manufacturing technology and sufficient resources to replace gasoline.

Hagen (1976) reviewed prospects for synthesizing methanol from fossil and renewable resources, its use as a fuel, economics, and hazards. Then in 1986, the Swedish Motor Fuel Technology Co. (SBAD) extensively reviewed the use of alcohols and alcohol blends as motor fuels. It reviewed the potential for methanol production from natural gas, very heavy oils, bituminous shales, coals, peat and biomass. 

In 2005, 2006 Nobel prize winner George A. Olah, G. K. Surya Prakash and Alain Goeppert advocated an entire methanol economy based on energy storage in synthetically produced methanol. The Methanol Institute, the methanol trade industry organization, posts reports and presentations on methanol.

On January 26, 2011, the European Union's Directorate-General for Competition approved the Swedish Energy Agency's award of 500 million Swedish kronor (approx. $56 million January 2011) toward the construction of a 3 billion Swedish kronor (approx. $335 million) industrial scale development biofuels plant for the production of Biomethanol and BioDME at the Domsjö Fabriker bio-refinery complex in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, using Chemrec's black liquor gasification technology.