Methanol as an alternative energy source

One of the most serious problems of mankind at the present time is the search for alternative energy sources. This is due not only to the rapidly depleting reserves of oil raw materials, but also to environmental problems that can potentially develop into a catastrophe on a global scale. According to statistical centers, all kinds of transport consume more than a third of all oil produced in the world. At the same time, it may happen that after some forty to fifty years, oil production will not be able to meet the needs of the population and transport, running on fuel of oil origin, will turn into a heap of metal. At the same time, the use of hydrocarbon fuel for cars with internal combustion engines implies large-scale emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere.
In view of the difficult situation with energy carriers, scientists have made every effort to develop a new source of energy, and it became alcohols. The possibility of using alcohols as a fuel is a good prospect, since this will significantly reduce the amount of harmful emissions and, accordingly, somewhat improve the environmental situation on the planet. However, not everything is so simple, since the use of alcohols as a fuel implies a number of technical problems that scientists have not been able to solve at present. By the way, the problems of using the same methanol as a fuel are not new, since this substance has been used for these purposes for almost a century.
In many physical and chemical properties, methanol is similar to hydrocarbon fuels. For example, the octane number and calorific value for these types of combustible material are almost identical. At the same time, by the way, the heat of vaporization of methyl alcohol even exceeds that for gasoline. At the same time, a number of properties of methanol create many problems and make it unprofitable to use this substance as a fuel for internal combustion engines. First of all, the disadvantages of methanol as a fuel should be attributed to high toxicity and corrosiveness to metals and plastics, which potentially reduces the service life of the engine several times, and this is economically impractical. However, the technological development of the chemical industry promises in the future to develop a methodology for the production of highly efficient fuel based on methanol.