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2 for Fuels and Chemicals
Published in Prasenjit Mondal, Ajay K. Dalai, Sustainable Utilization of Natural Resources, 2017
Sun, wind, waves, hydrothermal, and geothermal energies have been proposed as alternative energy sources to fossil fuels. Even though those sources have good potential and are increasingly used, their supply is still very small compared to the amount of energy that people need (Olah et al. 2011a). Hydrogen is another promising alternative for clean fuels; however, it requires special storing conditions, because it is a very light gas. Therefore, Olah has proposed the concept of a “Methanol economy,” which is based on replacing fossil fuels, with methanol as means of energy, and is also based on producing that methanol through chemical recycling of CO2 as an energy carrier (Olah et al. 2011a). Methanol is a safe and convenient liquid fuel with a very good potential to substitute fossil fuels.
1 Chemistry: An Overview
Published in Saeed Sahebdelfar, Maryam Takht Ravanchi, Ashok Kumar Nadda, 1 Chemistry, 2022
Saeed Sahebdelfar, Maryam Takht Ravanchi, Ashok Kumar Nadda
Methanol (and dimethyl ether, DME) is a key intermediate in C1 chemistry. In methanol economy proposed by George Olah et al. (2006), methanol plays the key role as chemical feedstock and energy carrier and in chemical fixation of the captured carbon dioxide (Figure 1.1). Methanol can be transformed to DME (a potential diesel substitute), olefins (methanol to olefins, MTO) and aromatics which are the building blocks in petrochemical industry.
Modeling the spray characteristics of blended fuels for gasoline direct injection applications
Published in International Journal of Green Energy, 2022
Ethanol is the kind of alcohol fuel that has shown promising results in Brazil and the USA regarding flex-fuel vehicles. However, ethanol’s manufacturing and processing costs are high, unlike Brazil, which has a better production-to-consumption ratio than others. Most other nations cannot produce ethanol efficiently by the first-generation process, i.e., ethanol is made from biomass feedstocks. This can be overcome by adopting the second-generation processes, allowing a more comprehensive range of feedstocks to produce ethanol (Aditiya et al. 2016). The places where ethanol production is challenging and cost-effective can look into another alternative among the alcohol fuels, such as methanol. For India, methanol is projected to be one of the best alternative fuels. National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) has also recommended methanol as a futuristic engine fuel in its methanol economy program (Methanol Economy | NITI Aayog 2021). Methanol can be obtained from coal, natural gas, biomass, wood landfills, etc. Biomass processing is the most cost-effective method for processing methanol (Aditiya et al. 2016; Methanol Economy | NITI Aayog 2021; Verhelst et al. 2019). Additionally, methanol and ethanol are miscible with each other and separately with gasoline too. It can be a promising fuel to mix with binary blends of ethanol and gasoline to reduce ethanol and gasoline utilization in the FFVs. The demand for methanol in the global market has also increased in the last few years. However, there are a few disadvantages of using methanol as a fuel, such as they are corrosive and has a low calorific value (almost half of the gasoline). Combustion of alcohol fuels produces formaldehyde in the exhaust, which is a severe exhaust pollution problem, and it has poor cold-weather starting characteristics (Safe Handling | METHANOL INSTITUTE 2021). These limitations can be reduced by blending alcoholic fuels with gasoline.