Methanol as a renewable fuel – a knowledge synthesis

Methanol use in various applications is on the raise globally and there are several examples on how methanol is used in the transport sector today. The production is comparably efficient and cost ef­fective and there are also several examples of where methanol as fuel is under advanced testing in various, sometimes novel, types of engines.

From the historical background can be discerned a lack of long term perspective with respect to (a) earlier and current motivation to “use/not to use” methanol as an alternative fuel, (b) experiences gained from earlier periods of methanol usage, and (c) why interest to use methanol as an automo­tive fuel has shifted through the past decades. A newly finished f3 project by Ingvar Landälv, Bio4Energy/LTU, has had the objective of creating a knowledge synthesis with this long term perspective in mind, and also to look forward and address methanol’s potential role as energy carrier/motor fuel in Sweden (and elsewhere).