contary to popular belief.

Natural gas is the most economical and widely used feedstock for methanol production, other feedstocks can be used. Where natural gas is unavailable, light petroleumproducts can be used in its place.


Methanol, also known as methyl alcohol, carbinol, wood alcohol, wood naphtha or wood spirits, is a chemical compound with chemical formulaCH3OH (often abbreviated MeOH). It is the simplest alcohol, and is a light, volatile, colourless, flammable, poisonous liquid with a distinctive odor that is somewhat milder and sweeter than ethanol (ethyl alcohol). At room temperature it is a polar liquid and is used as an antifreeze, solvent, fuel, and as a denaturant for ethyl alcohol. It is also used for producing biodiesel via transesterification reaction.
Methanol is produced naturally in the anaerobicmetabolism of many varieties of bacteria. As a result, there is a small fraction of methanol vapor in the atmosphere. Over the course of several days, atmospheric methanol is oxidized by oxygen with the help of sunlight to carbon dioxide and water.
Methanol burns in air forming carbon dioxide and water:


It is now produced synthetically by a multi-step process: natural gas and steam are reformed in a furnace to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide; then, hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases react under pressure in the presence of a catalyst.
An entire methanol economy, based on methanol as a primary energy-storage medium and fuel, has been seriously proposed.



Found some interesting reading here on the methanol car. sounded promising but check the dates. not much has been done.

http://www.setamericafree.org/Rnichols.pdf

really interesting stuff
enjoy.
so the vegos can't claim that one anymore

Cheers

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Cheers
Nick.

Roidio 2001 Holden Rodeo 4x4 2.8L TD. 2.5" Straight through exhaust sytem, heat exchanger shower system. 2" Body Lift,
And lots of fruit, B100 for 25,000 no problems.

Elsa 1983 Mercedes-Benz W123 300D. The Fastest Merc in Oz, Loving B100 Burgers

It's still made from fossil fuels

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can you explain this??

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Cheers
Nick.

Roidio 2001 Holden Rodeo 4x4 2.8L TD. 2.5" Straight through exhaust sytem, heat exchanger shower system. 2" Body Lift,
And lots of fruit, B100 for 25,000 no problems.

Elsa 1983 Mercedes-Benz W123 300D. The Fastest Merc in Oz, Loving B100 Burgers

Natural Gas is a petroleum product.
Methanol is made from Natural Gas.
Therefore Methanol is a petroleum product.

Methanol can be made using methane from landfill gas or an anerobic digester, but it is way too expensive making it that way.

Regards,
Tony

I'm not sure natural gas is technically a petroleum product (although I tend to consider it as one) since it is usually found in different deposits from crude oil (either on it's own or with coal). My understanding is that lthough they are produced the same way, the conditions under which it is formed are different from that for crude oil. However they are, at the very least, both fossil fuels. They come out of the ground, and are non-renewable.

Like Tony says, you can make it in a renewable manner, it's just that it is a hell of a lot easier to get it out of the ground.

Check out the "Gorgon project" if you would like to know more about natural gas in WA.

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i would have thought

natural gas= any naturally formed gas eg methane, etc etc.

petroleum gas=LPG Liquified Petroleum Gas

i tend to think along troys lines a bit.

keep the discussion coming guys
cheers Nick.

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Cheers
Nick.

Roidio 2001 Holden Rodeo 4x4 2.8L TD. 2.5" Straight through exhaust sytem, heat exchanger shower system. 2" Body Lift,
And lots of fruit, B100 for 25,000 no problems.

Elsa 1983 Mercedes-Benz W123 300D. The Fastest Merc in Oz, Loving B100 Burgers

Problem is, LPG is usually the volatile components from oil fields (predominantly butane and propane, not much methane) whereas natural gas is mostly methane (not much propane or butane). I'm not sure why they call it natural gas, but it's probably got to do with the bacteria that are responsible for it.

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the LPG i was refuring to was the stuff that is produced while cracking the crude in the refinerys processes.

false advertising hey??

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Cheers
Nick.

Roidio 2001 Holden Rodeo 4x4 2.8L TD. 2.5" Straight through exhaust sytem, heat exchanger shower system. 2" Body Lift,
And lots of fruit, B100 for 25,000 no problems.

Elsa 1983 Mercedes-Benz W123 300D. The Fastest Merc in Oz, Loving B100 Burgers

lol. False advertising?
What exactly are they advertising?



LPG is just a common name for a particular "fraction" from crude. In the US, they typically use straight propane, rather than LPG.

A little bit about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquefied_petroleum_gas

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In Australia Natural gas is considered by the governement to be a petroleum product, which is why natural gas is covered by the petroleums act.
A useless bit of trivia I picked up doing the mandatories to work on the Dampier - Bunbury Gas Pipeline.

The Gorgon project, hmm, the A list nature reserve thats currently having the biggest Gas plant the planet has ever seen built built right in the freaking middle of it.

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Rgds

Adam

"Revolution never comes with a warning!"