Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Methanol with an "M"

Rumors on the streets of Soperton during the past couple of weeks have claimed that the Range Fuels plant has produced its first Ethanol.  The company's news release yesterday (August 17) doesn't go that far. The product mentioned is Methanol.  Some technical definitions are that Ethanol is a fuel, but Methanol is a chemical.

Range Fuels news release:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/range-fuels-produces-cellulosic-methanol-from-first-commercial-cellulosic-biofuels-plant-100910949.html

Ethanol - Methanol:


http://www.differencebetween.net/science/difference-between-ethanol-and-methanol/


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5 comments:

E-NEWS moderator said...

What's the difference?

http://www.differencebetween.net/science/difference-between-ethanol-and-methanol/

Anonymous said...

The difference ultimately doesn't matter. The methanol is cheaper to produce and can be used in more markets than the ethanol. Both are classified as Chemicals, and Methanol like Ethanol can be considered a fuel.

E-News moderator said...

Anonymous is correct that both chemicals can be fuels, especially while alternatives of oil are uppermost.
We don't even doubt the possibility that ethanol was produced last week, but it appears that the company is not ready to make that claim.
The third quarter ends with September, six weeks away, the period in which the company expects to be producing ethanol.

Anonymous said...

Methanol is one of the raw materials for making biodiesel.

E-News moderator said...

We read that methanol has been the fuel for Indy racing machines for a while.
Also we read that the low cost source of methanol is from natural gas (T. Boone Pickens' favorite).
It appears that historic lab chemistry is rising to commercial use in many ways today and for the future.
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