This document discusses the potential for increased methanol production and use as a transportation fuel in the United States. Key points include: 1) Increased natural gas production could enable production of up to 17 billion gallons of methanol annually for under $1.50 per gallon. 2) With some infrastructure changes like fueling stations and updated vehicle systems, methanol could replace up to 12% of US oil imports and 10 billion gallons of gasoline usage. 3) Methanol has the potential to reduce fuel costs and tailpipe emissions compared to gasoline.

1. Eyal Aronoff - Fuel Freedom Foundation, March 2012

4. Increased production causing the price to collapse

5. 1.7 $3.5
trillion qft
billion
17
billion gallon
methanol
12% 1.3 10 $38
of oil mbpd billion gallon billion
import gasoline

7.  Small addition to existing infrastructure
 Up to 25% of the feedstock could be naturally
occurring CO2
 Could substantially boost methanol yield
 Lower the carbon footprint of the fuel
 But requires methanol distribution system
 Effective where large metro areas are in close
proximity to the gas fields

9.  Methanol production on demand
 Container-size gasifier connected to
municipal water and municipal gas
 No need for truck delivery and underground
storage tank
 Even at a commercial gas rate of over
$8/Mcf, methanol produced for under $1.5 a
gallon
 Profit margins are huge compared to profit

10.  For new cars: Open Fuel Standard
 For existing cars:
 Activate E85 fuel flexibility + replace elastomers
(seals and O-rings) = You get M60 compatibility
 Upgrade to higher methanol blends with a simple
spark table modification

11.  Very low tail pipe emissions
 15% improved MPG relative to gasoline on
energy content equivalent
 These results are similar to the results
published by the Chinese experiment
 “16 gallons of methanol equal to 10 gallons of
gasoline”

12.  Pass the Open Fuel Standard with methanol
support requirement
 EPA to define a standard for fuel-grade
methanol including additives
 EPA to relax after-market conversion rules
 EPA to give a waver for the 1 lb. rule
 UL certification for methanol mixer pumps
 National open source repository for
replacement fuels spark tables (a.k.a. “tunes”)

13.  To capitalize on this trillion dollar-a-year
opportunity we all need to work together
 The Fuel Freedom Foundation is an NGO
committed to opening the fuel market to
competition
FuelFreedom.org