China’s Alternative Fuel - 5/10/09

It is will known that China will have a lot of new cars on the road over the next number of years.  China has around 35 million cars on the road today.  Experts estimate China will have 120 million cars by 2020.

Surprisingly, China has recently adopted fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles that are even stricter than the U.S.  Unlike the U.S. where ethanol is the main alternative fuel, China’s main alternative fuel is methanol.

Methanol is a clear liquid normally made from natural gas.  China makes methanol from coal.  China’s main use for methanol is in blended gasoline.  Taxi and bus fleets in China run on high-methanol blends.  Their retail gas pumps are selling low-methanol blends similar to the U.S. gas pumps using blended ethanol.

China makes a great deal of methanol and is adding more capacity, but it still imports methanol.  Recently Chinese imports have recently been climbing. 

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