Jul
18
Spotlighting the Dark Horse of Alternative Fuels
July 18, 2008 | 2 Comments
While the world is watching with horror or glee at the price of oil and its products there is a dark horse out there growing stronger, gaining resources, gathering intelligence and innovation all pointed to pushing oil off of its pedestal. It’s methanol, the one carbon, four hydrogen and one oxygen atom molecule that has been used by mankind for centuries.
The past weeks have seen major strides in developing the tools to make modern use of methanol.
MTI Micro, a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology Incorporated (MTI) (NASDAQ: MKTY) last week let slip their latest prototype test of a micro fuel cell had completed 2,700 hours of continuous operation and remains running.
MTI Micro’s device is an innovation of the cell to have a small chip inside to move the water that forms in operation out of the cell keeping the cell in running form. The prototype is so small that the cell is being engineered to operate such devices a cell phones, PDAs, mpg players, GPS units and other microelectronics. The shock in this is that the cell remains at 85% of new output capacity. Compared to common lithium ion batteries over 360 hours of use the drop is down to 65% capacity as most cell phone owners can attest.
There are also intense efforts underway in Europe, the U.S., Japan and China to integrate and increase the fuel share of methanol through fuel cell development. The U.S. Department of Defense has begun deploying fuel cell equipment fueled by methanol, MIT has a new material for the fuel cell membrane that may become a huge cost reducer, the Spanish are determined to top everyone’s efforts with a catalyst added to the cell to assist in the process that displaces using the expensive mineral platinum. The Japanese are racing and partnering with other leaders and have a newsletter system to keep researchers up on who has accomplished what.
All this is happening because of the realities of methanol. Its very easy to make, uses feed stocks from sewage, garbage and trash to grass, tree and shrub clippings, wood waste, paper production’s black liquor, plant growth from weed trees along fence lines, all the cellulosic plants considered for ethanol, and could be made from plants that may be grown in sea water. It’s as if saying, “If it’s organic, you can make methanol from it.” Methanol production could become the recycling destination for most anything but glass and metal. That would help clean up the planet.
To give some feel for this potential, a ton of wood would make between 165 to 185 gallons of methanol. The U.S. alone generates 240 million tons of wood waste each year, which would yield at least 39.6 billion gallons of methanol. U.S. paper mills could add another 9.3 billion gallons. The uncounted tons of trash and garbage would add still more. Methanol can be made from oil, natural, gas, coal and there remains more than half of the U.S. farm acreage that isn’t in production now that could add hundreds of millions of tons annually. Methanol can even be made from CO or CO2 with a hydrogen source made available.
Industry is aware; from 2004 to 2007 the world saw seven new methanol production plants start up making an additional 10 million metric tons of methanol – a 25% increase in world capacity.
This makes the award winning MTI Micro fuel cell named “Mobion” quite significant. As a breakthrough at the micro level rather than coming in as a large unit the volumes of production micro fuel cells will get big, very fast. It is in my recollection a reversal from ever-smaller technology to an opportunity to use micro technology upsized to meet the transport vehicle potential.
The MTI Micro Mobion amplifies the advantages fuel cells offer over batteries. Fuel cells don’t need to be plugged into a charger, or wait for charging as the energy source of a fuel can be carried along. The MTI Micron Mobion demonstrates a 2 to as much as a 10 multiple per “charge” or refuel over a lithium ion battery. There are no heavy metals such a nickel, lithium, cobalt, lead and others to mine, manufacture, and depose of.
Methanol in the announced fuel cells also offers a noteworthy advantage over hydrogen. Methanol cells run at temperatures in the range of much of the atmosphere whereas the hydrogen units announced run in hundreds of degrees which will need engineered to stay close to operating temp and the mechanicals to stay warm while not in use meaning they will need attended to and some form of power even when not working.
The dark horse named methanol is out there. China is already committed to adding methanol to its fuel mix and is far ahead of the western democracies. Of note is some important western firms are working on methanol in China from big oil like ConocoPhillips, Shell, BP and technology companies like General Electric, Siemans, Dow and DuPont. China expects to increase 2007 production of 11 million tons of methanol to 20 million tons in 2010. Growth in methanol can happen very fast indeed.
One has to wonder about the Weyerhaeuser and Chevron project to make use of wood and its wastes. Their new co-owned company is deep into unnamed research.
On the other hand, in the 1930s “Great Depression” American innovators managed to operate uncounted Model ‘T’s on methanol. Methanol was the fuel of choice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway until pushed off by ethanol. It’s a well known fuel, a chemical mankind has been familiar with for centuries. In a pinch many of us could fuel our vehicles with simple methanol production processes.
The Direct Methanol Fuel Cell known as DMCF is a technology well worth keeping an eye on. It can’t be too long until a new battle ensues between batteries and fuel cells. It’s looking like the research, development, engineering, operating conditions, outputs, manufacturing are making progress.
A wager? Will you own a DMFC before you own a photovoltaic solar panel?
A valuable link: The Methanol Institute. They maintain a lot of information – much of which is in downloadable pdfs.
Comments
2 Comments so far
Feedburner
Reddit
Stumbleupon
[…] Manufacturing and Distribution Industries wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt While the world is watching with horror or glee at the price of oil and its products there is a dark horse out there growing stronger, gaining resources, gathering intelligence and innovation all pointed to pushing oil off of its pedestal. It’s methanol, the one carbon, four hydrogen and one oxygen atom molecule that has been used by mankind for centuries. The past weeks have seen major strides in developing the tools to make modern use of methanol. MTI Micro, a subsidiary of Mechanical Techn […]
[…] This makes the award winning MTI Micro fuel cell named “Mobion” quite significant. As a breakthrough at the micro level rather than coming in as a large unit the volumes of production micro fuel cells will get big, very fast. … Read More […]