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0 pointshannob2y ago0 comments

> Methanol production requires methane as a synthesis gas so it just adds another step.

That's not true. Methanol can be made directly from CO2 and H2. This has been tried more than a decade ago: https://www.carbonrecycling.is/ They just opened a much larger plant with this technology in China.

There's currently a huge push in the shipping industry towards renewable methanol, and there are a bunch of companies investing in this space.

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foxyv2y ago

E-Methanol is okay as a carbon neutral fuel and solvent. At 50-60% efficiency it makes an excellent fuel to create from electricity. But it is still a long way from competing with battery and pumped hydro. It's fuel cell efficiency is only 30% with current technology after the 40-50% losses from the creating of the fuel itself. You can buy a lot of transmission wire at that price point.

All of these technologies illustrate how obscenely difficult it will be to put the carbon genie back in the bottle and what a miracle lithium chemistry batteries really are.

rich_sasha2y ago

But I guess you can make a lot of methanol in summer and burn it in winter, storing it cheaply for months. Batteries so far seem maybe ok at balancing diurnal power generation / use patterns but not seasonal storage.

foxyv2y ago

Yeah, it is definitely not a bad idea for heating fuel, feed chemical, racing fuel, jet fuel, etc... Just replacing the natural gas produced methanol would be nice. However, wind energy has high availability in the winter and batteries would make up for blizzards and shortfalls. Canada is having a lot of good results from wind energy. In addition, they make a ton of energy from hydroelectricity.

Every country is different, E-methanol may be a solution for a few places. However it is not something I would personally invest in.

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0 pointshannob2y ago0 comments

> Methanol production requires methane as a synthesis gas so it just adds another step.

There's currently a huge push in the shipping industry towards renewable methanol, and there are a bunch of companies investing in this space.

0 comments

foxyv2y ago

All of these technologies illustrate how obscenely difficult it will be to put the carbon genie back in the bottle and what a miracle lithium chemistry batteries really are.

rich_sasha2y ago

foxyv2y ago

Every country is different, E-methanol may be a solution for a few places. However it is not something I would personally invest in.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse