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Methanol: The Universal Transportation Fuel for the Mid-Term (Bridging the Gap to Hydrogen)

by Stanley P. Miller

65 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-1399; ISBN 1-4120-3571-6; US$12.50, C$14.00, EUR10.00, £7.00

A readily available, inexpensive fuel; a new, but simple engine technology; diesel-like efficiency, but extremely low exhaust emissions; freedom from imported petroleum. It's all possible!

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About the Book      About the Author      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

While hydrogen is definitely the fuel of the future, its economic viability is many years away. Thus an interim, or mid-term fuel is required to replace petroleum. In comparing all of the potential alternative fuels, methanol is the only one that fits the bill of being truly universal, that is, it can be used in all three types of powerplants that will be in use: Spark-ignition engines, compression-ignition engines, and fuel cells. In this book, a concept is introduced called Low Cetane Compression Ignition (LCCI), and it is compared to other technologies from economic, efficiency and emissions standpoints. Burning methanol in a LCCI engine provides diesel-like efficiency, low NOx emissions and no particulate emissions. With the addition of NOx after treatment, future emissions standards are easily met, and when mated to a generator in a hybrid configuration, it approaches the efficiency of a fuel cell.

LCCI is the key to overcoming the stigma of poor fuel economy with past flexible fueled spark-ignition engines. LCCI provides the efficiency of a diesel engine without the emissions concerns. And when combined with hybrid technology, the efficiency approaches that of the methanol fuel cell vehicle, at much lower cost.

Although methanol in fuel cells is also a good choice, it will take many years for the cost of fuel cells to come down to a point where automakers are willing to abandon their conventional piston engine tooling. What is proposed in this book is a way to make methanol mainstream throughout the entire transportation network, and do so relatively quickly, by enabling its use in both fuel cells and piston engines at the same time.

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About the Author

Stanley P. Miller was Manager of the Alternative Fuel Project Center for Detroit Diesel Corporation from 1988 through 1996. This assignment involved the development of various alternative-fuel engines, including engines fueled by methanol, ethanol, natural gas, and biodiesel, using various combustion processes. It was during this assignment that Mr. Miller became very knowledgeable about the above fuels and other fuels in general. He became particularly interested in the positive benefits of methanol on emissions and national security, along with its ease of handling and storage, relative ease of production and transporting, and its relatively low cost. He also gained a complete understanding of the development issues related to methanol, and how to deal with these issues.

The author holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), and a Masters degree in Applied Mechanics from the University of Michigan. He has worked for Detroit Diesel Corporation (now part of Daimler Chrysler Power systems) for twenty-nine years in various engineering and managerial assignments.

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Excerpts

Imagine a fuel that could be used in all forms of transportation engines, including spark-ignition engines, compression-ignition engines and fuel cells. Imagine a fuel that would allow all vehicles, from the smallest passenger car to the largest line-haul tractor-trailer, to fill up at the same fueling station. That's right: One pump, one tank, one fuel for all!

Such a fuel, that can satisfy all of the above imaginings, does exist. It is methanol, CH3OH, the simplest alcohol, the shortest chain organic compound that is a liquid at normal temperature and pressure; it is a compound containing 50% oxygen by mass and has no Carbon-to-Carbon chemical bonds.

The technology for combustion of Low Cetane fuels under Com pression Ignition (hence, LCCI) relies on the ability of the autoignition temperature of the fuel to be reached in the cylinder after compression of the fuel-air mixture. Diesel fueled engines achieve this temperature with a typical compression ratio of 15:1 - 19:1 without any additional heat sources supplied except during cold starting. For cold starting, glow plugs are typically used to quickly add heat to the combustion chamber to assist starting. The lower the cetane number of the fuel, the more reliance on glow plugs for starting is required, along with other sources of heat.

Combustion/Emissions

Once the engine is started, methanol offers the capability of providing extremely low NOx and zero soot emissions, with increased engineout HC and CO emissions vs. diesel fuel. The HC and CO are then reduced to negligible levels using a platinum-based oxidation catalyst in the exhaust stream.

One of the reasons that LCCI technology, using methanol fuel, makes so much sense, is that it can deliver very low levels of emissions with almost the same fuel economy as methanol direct fuel cells (MDFC), at a much lower cost. This is particularly true if the LCCI engine is combined with a generator in a hybrid configuration, where this combination provides levels of fuel economy and fuel cost per mile approaching that of the MDFC.

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Catalogue Information

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