The paper discusses the use of methanol as a key enabler of the pragmatic, affordable and utter decarbonization of transportation. The ease with which it can be synthesized from carbonaceous feed stocks provides a contiguous route to a transportation system which can ultimately eliminate fossil-sourced CO2. The recycling of water and CO2 to provide the hydrogen, carbon and oxygen feed stocks required has the potential to provide full energy security and to ensure the continued affordability of personal transportation. This paper has shown that: (1) Methanol can be synthesized from CO2 and water using renewable energy to create a decarbonized liquid energy carrier. This is performed at lower energetic loss than if higher hydrocarbons (e.g. gasoline, diesel or kerosene electrofuels) are synthesized from the same feed stocks, although this is still possible and desirable for some applications such as aircraft. The resulting electrofuels are completely carbon-neutral if all the energy used is fossil-carbon-free. (2) When kept in the form of methanol, the resulting energy can be converted more efficiently in spark-ignition combustion systems than is the case with gasoline. When and where full optimization of engines to use it in its pure form is eventually possible, the efficiency can even be as high as that of diesel engines. In terms of surface transport, this reduces the overall requirement for the upstream energy necessary to fully decarbonize the fleet. (3) Carbon-neutral kerosene can be synthesized in the same way and hence aviation can be fully decarbonized, too. It should be noted that there is no practical alternative to this approach for heavier-than-air aircraft. (4) Methanol can be blended with gasoline and ethanol to provide a drop-in alternative fuel for the 9 million-plus flex-fuel vehicles in existence. These GEM ternary blends can be made cheaper per unit energy than gasoline (which is generally not the case for E85) and provide an efficiency improvement too. The approach is also viable for any gasoline-ethanol binary blend. (5) The taxation system can be modified to help to drive the decarbonization process by focussing on energy and its associated carbon intensity. The entire process can also assure stability in the taxation system and protect tax revenues from transport into the future. (6) The concept permits the exploitation of stranded energy sources worldwide and, when a related development producing methane as an electrofuel is also considered, it allows its storage in the gas grid as well. This will help to remove the obstacle to investment in massive renewable energy (i.e. the base load of the electricity grid). (7) The fact that the liquid fuels produced using this approach are miscible with present fossil fuels means that the whole process can be evolutionary and contiguous, with no major fiscal inputs on the part of any of the stakeholders in transport. Adopting such a 'Sustainable Organic Fuels for Transport' strategy could provide an affordable route to the complete and utter decarbonization of transport and power generation.
Evolutionary decarbonization of transport: a contiguous roadmap to affordable mobility using sustainable organic fuels for transport
Evolutionäre CO<sub>2</sub>-Einsparung: Eine Roadmap zur erschwinglichen Mobilität unter Anwendung nachhaltiger organischer Kraftstoffe für Verkehrszwecke
2012
18 Seiten, 9 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 25 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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