CaptainJJack

Ethanol vs. Natural Gas or Coal: Comparison Not Even Close

While I agree with the comments on Ethanol, I have to say that there is a closely related compound, Methanol, that is far, far more promising.

Methanol for fuel is an idea that is 100 years old. The original process was developed by the Germans using coal, and it is what drove their war machines in the world wars.

Methanol is usually made from natural gas, today, but it is also being used in recycling wood products

I became interested after reading a book by George Olah: THE METHANOL ECONOMY. Olah was awarded the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 1994.

Olah is currently working on making methanol by adding hydrogen atoms to carbon dioxide, using pure hydrogen developed from cracking water at very high temperatures thereby addressing the cost issues with hydrogen production, and addressing global warming.

As a by product, he is solving the ultimate storage and transportation problems involved in a transportation fuel.

Essentially, all fuels are mechanisms for transporting hydrogen. Oil, gasoline, and natural gas are far superior as carriers to alternatives, especially ethanol and hydrogen.

But, methanol isn't bad both in terms of energy in versus energy out, and in ease of storage and transportation.

The hydrogen process Olah is looking at produces hydrogen as a by product in a nuclear reactor (i.e. the reactor produces HEAT for both electrical generation and for hydrogen generation --electrolysis is NOT used)

An Alternative to America’s Gasoline Crisis

To Howsie:

They are making syngas using the Fisher-Tropish Method. It is the same method as the CTL method as i point out, above.

The method was developed by the Germans in WWI because they were fighting a war and they didn't have oil. There are a number of companies that are using some derivative of the F-T method, and it is the method that the Chinese have announced that they will pursue as the CTL alternative.

An Alternative to America’s Gasoline Crisis

To waste precious natural gas on transportation would be a tragedy. Natural Gas is by far the most efficient way to heat our homes.
The problem is NOT a supply problem, it is a DEMAND problem. The price of oil did not DOUBLE in the last year because production dropped, it doubled because the markets started to figure out that in 20 years, China alone will need what the world produces today.
And the answer isn't ANWR or Offshore drilling.
The world uses 1 billion barrels of oil EVERY 12 DAYS!! ANWR is 10 billion barrels and proven reserves on ALL Federal land is only 19 billion barrels.
The answer lies in reducing demand worldwide. We can do this in two ways. First, we keep the price of oil high. Commodity brokers are fond of saying, nothing fixes high commodity prices like high commodity prices.
Secondly, we invest in alternatives, especially methanol. Methanol is the only viable answer, because it is the only transportation alternative ( It was used exclusively at the Indy 500 for 20 years until the politicians pressured them to switch to ethanol this year)that can actually fill the enormous requirement at a reasonable cost (roughly $2.5 per 2 gallons, the energy equivalent of 1 gallon of gasoline), using existing technology(Fisher-Trop...
While the current process uses Coal to Liquid (CTL), there is no reason why the exact same technology can't be used for converting solid waste to methanol, and this is currently being done with wood waste, although not on anywhere near the scale it could be.
Finally, if we look long term, methanol can be made from combining Hydrogen and Carbon Dioxide (3H2 + CO2->H3COH + H2O) making Carbon Dioxide an efficient delivery system for Hydrogen(i.e. methanol delivered in pipelines instead of ethanol).