"China Approves Methanol as Clean-Burning Alternative to Gasoline" Green Car Advisor

China Approves Methanol as Clean-Burning Alternative to Gasoline

China's ministry for standards has approved nationwide use of methanol as a motor vehicle fuel as the petroleum-guzzling country attempts to curtail its appetite for crude oil.

Methanol, or methyl alcohol - a popular fuel for high-powered drag racing cars in the U.S. - is most commonly produced from natural gas but can be made from coal or wood waste. One of its common names, in fact, is wood alcohol.

The Chinese standard permits it to be mixed with gasoline in blends of up to M85, or 85 percent methanol, 15 percent gasoline.

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Methanol from China in stoppered sample bottles.
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The fuel once was popular as a gasoline alternative in the U.S., but rising prices even as gasoline prices were falling killed interest in methanol in the mid 1990s and it since has been replaced in the U.S. by ethanol.

Methanol also can be produced from coal, which China burns in huge quantities to fuel its power plants.

China is actively encouraging use of alternatives to oil including solar power, hydrogen fuel cells and alternative fuels such as methanol.

It also sees the clean-burning fuel as a way of reducing the killer air pollution in many of its cities.

Geely Holdings, one of the country' largest automakers, already has developed flex-fuel methanol-gasoline systems and Chery Automobile is working on similar systems, according to analysts at IHS Global insight.