We’ve found plenty of evidence that corn ethanol is just a form of “liquid pork”. And that cellulosic ethanol sounds promising, but may not prove to be economic - a good example of venture capital opportunity. What about methanol?
This week’s podcast from Glenn and Helen interviews Robert Zubrin, the author of Energy Victory, who is promoting the benefits to be obtained if every new vehicle were flex-fuel capable. He is advocating a free-market solution which enables any alcohol to compete directly with gasoline [not true today as there are an insignificant number of flex-fuel vehicles].
The author gives a concise, coherent explanation of the many reasons that the “hydrogen economy” is a dead end [the podcast is worthwhile just for that segment]. His point about methanol [CH 3 OH] was interesting: from an industrial process perspective, methanol is the easiest/cheapest molecule to make - of the alcohols. And methanol can be made from existing waste, such as municipal dumps.
I’ll look into this further.
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