pure Hydrogen, gas, Ethanol, Metane and many more. But the fuel which as the greatest
support from the automotive industrie is methanol. The advantage with Methanol is that it can be
reformed onboard the vehicle at much lower temperature than synthetics or gasoline, making it
easier to reform into Hydrogen gas which is what makes the fuel cell work.
As a result of this the carcompanies have decided to initiallty use metthanol for their early fuel
cell demonstration vehicles. One such vehicle is the DaimlerChrysler's NECAR 4 vehicle, an
methanol fuel cell powered A-class Mercedes Benz.
But direct methanol fuel cell engines will eliminate the need for reformers altogetherbut these
could be become avaliable in the 2008-2010 timeframe. Its difficult to kmow at any certainty
where there at in thge development of direct methanol fuel cells because the competion to be the
first to marketis very intense. The positive thing is that the challenge with direct methanol is
coming up with the right membrane material in the stack that will seperate the Hydrogen ions
from the methanol. Up to this point experimenters have been using the same type of material
used in pure hydrogen stacks, which is not very efficuent. Two new materials recently
demonstrated in the laboratory show promise of solving this problem and improving effiency by
a factor of ten. There is a huge amont of research going into that area as the opportunity is so
great to totally simplify the system as to reduce the start up time and vertually eliminate all
emissions from the stack.
The safty and environment issues
Many people belive that the fuel methanol is not safe but this is incorect. Methanol has been
safly used for the last 35 years as the fuel that powers the race cars of indianapolis 500. citing us
Environment Protection Agency studies. The deaths from automotive crash -induced fires would
be 10% of what they currently are from gaspline.There has never been a fire during the indy 500
since the introduction of methanol.
Substituting methanol for gasoline would cut greenhouse gas emmisions by 50%. It would also
make possible a smooth transition to renewable fuels like ethanol which is derived from plant
feed stocks.
Methanol is currently created by converting natural gas into a liquid fuel.However it may be
possible to create methanol from sea weed on off-shore processing plants.Such palnts would
not only provide us with a renewable fuel but it would also promote the growth of fish
populations.The process would also sequester huge amounts of carbon dioxide in a closed loop
system. On the topic of oil well flare gas, there are two types of sea borne methanol plants, one
now in operation and the second is under construction, which were specifically designed to dry
up flare gas wells, converting what was being wasted into a useable fuel. If only 10% of the gas
currently being flared wree converted to methanol an estimated 2 million cars could be driven
and there is also anouth excess methanol production capacity in the world to dive another 2
millions.
Methanol does not release carcinogenic benzine vapour nor does it realease any other
auromatic hydrocarbons into the air.
The cost issue
One of the reasons why methanol has never been competitive with gasoline is because of its
higher cost. But people need to realise taht there is currently technology in development which
will cut the cost of production. A new plant to be built in Trinidad and Tobago will be able to
produce 5,000 tons of fuel a day, this will help drive down the cost of methanol.
I am not certain how much it would drive down the price of methanol but given hte projected
increases in effiency of a methanol fuel cell vehicle over a conventional ICE vehicle, tje price
differential between methanol and gasoline would be iliminated. It might also prove less
expensive than gasoline.
Relative cost per litre pence
The formula of methanol is CH3 OH, its standard enthalpy change in combustion in kj mol-1 is
-890, its relative atomic mass is 16 and its energy density which is the energy transferred on
burning 1kg of fuel in kj-1 is
-55 600. Methanol hasa octanenumber of 114 and its boiling point in degrees is 65. The relative
cost per litre pence of methanol would cost you 4.0.
Conclusion
The fuel that i chose to investigate to find out which fuel would be best to replace petrol in a
motor vehicle is Methanol. There are many reasons why i decided to chose the fuel methanol as
my fuel
As Methanol is a liquid it has simular properties to gasoline, it is just as east to transport and
distribute so this is why i think Methanol is the most likly candadate to power fuel-cell
cars.Methanol is environmentally friendly product with an excellent safty record.
Methanol is more expensive than petrol but there is a developement to go plant in countries so
that the price of it will be lowered which is a positive atitude. At the moment i would say that
there are 2 fuels for the running of fuel for the future Hydrogen and Methanol. The questions that
need to be asked about Hydrogen are.
Where will the Hydrogen come from?
How will motorists fill up?
How will cars store the fuel?
I hope you have enjoyed my presentation on methanol fuel for the future.
Bibliography
in order for me to research for differnt types on information on methanol i
had tolook througth a numerous of books, i have listed them below.
Chemical storylines which had a central team of George Burton, John
Holman, Gwen Piling and David Waddington.
Letts A Level chemistry by Bob Mcduell
Understanding chemistry for advanced level by Ted Lister and Janet
Renshaw.
