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NOTE: Production can be terminated at methanol, DME, or gasoline, or all three fuels can be produced. Demand will determine the fuel(s) marketed.

The process

1. Use renewable electricity — from hydro, wind, nuclear, solar, and geothermal energy — to power an array of electrolyzers to produce hydrogen.
2. Catalytically combine the hydrogen with carbon dioxide captured from industrial processes to produce methanol.
   
3. Dehydrate the methanol to create dimethyl ether (DME).
4. Dehydrate the DME over a zeolite catalyst to produce gasoline.

The technology

The technology is mature, with roots extending to 1920s Germany. Currently, around 40 million tonnes of methanol is produced worldwide per year, mainly by passing syngas (a mixture of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen) through a catalyst bed to create a reaction that converts the mixture to methanol in very high yields and releases heat. Blue Fuel Energy plans to use this technology with a purposely blended mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, just as Nobel prize-winning chemist George Olah promotes in Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy. Blue Fuel Methanol will be renewable because the production process can utilize waste carbon dioxide from any source — just as plants do — and hydrogen generated with renewable electricity.

The applications

Blue Fuel Methanol applications include:

• Blend component that reduces the carbon intensity of the gasoline pool in jurisdictions with low-carbon fuel standards (i.e., BC and California).
• Extender of the benefits of ethanol as a gasoline replacement in a range of gasoline/methanol/ethanol blends.
• Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), now widely used to power forklifts, as well as supply clean electricity for yachts, EVs, off-the-grid dwellings, and more.
• Plastics production
  

Blue Fuel DME applications include:

• Diesel replacement
• Electric power generation
• Domestic applications such as cooking and heating
• Plastics production

Blue Fuel Gasoline applications:
Blue Fuel Gasoline is almost identical to conventional petroleum-based gasoline — except for its ultra-low sulfur and benzene content, and ultra-low carbon intensity, the result of its feedstocks and production process. Blue Fuel Gasoline, therefore, has identical applications to conventional gasoline.

The endorsement

In November 2010 researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) issued a report titled Methanol as an alternative transportation fuel in the US: options for sustainable and/or energy-secure transportation. Funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) the report explicitly states that there are NO TECHNOLOGICAL HURDLES to the use of methanol as a transportation fuel, and highlights the many advantages of methanol and approaches for its implementation. It also discusses the production of DME and gasoline from methanol.

The emergence of renewable methanol and gasoline

The production of renewable methanol is gaining momentum, and Blue Fuel Energy's approach is by no means the only one. In November 2011 in Iceland Carbon Recycling International commissioned the George Olah Renewable Methanol Plant, the output of which will be blended into gasoline. in Sweden Varmland Metanol will make renewable methanol from biomass at the world's first full-scale biomass-to-methanol plant. Varmland Metanol plans to use its product as a gasoline blendstock. Blue Fuel Energy is targeting two applications for Blue Fuel Methanol: as gasoline blendstock; and as a fuel for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), demand for which is expected to rise in near- and medium-terms.

In the early 1970s a methanol to gasoline (MTG) process was developed by Mobil, leading Methanex to build a facility in New Zealand in the 1980s. This plant was a technical success, but was shut down in the early 1990s, when oil dropped to $10 per barrel. Blue Fuel Energy will use the ExxonMobil MTG process to produce gasoline from methanol. Given oil’s current price of over $80 per barrel, and projected prices well beyond that, the economics have changed significantly over the last 15 years. So too have regulatory environments. Given that Blue Fuel Gasoline will be derived from renewable, ultra-low-carbon methanol and not natural gas-based methanol, in jurisdictions with low-carbon fuel standards, Blue Fuel Gasoline will be inherently more valuable than conventional gasoline.

Consumers will have a choice: purchase conventional gasoline with a carbon intensity of 90-96 g/megajule, or Blue Fuel Gasoline, with a carbon intensity of 35-40 g/megajule. Gasoline suppliers in jurisdictions with low-carbon fuel standards will be able to seamlessly reduce the carbon intensity of their gasoline pools simply by ensuring that retailers have Blue Fuel Gasoline pumps. No pump or storage tank modifications required. No vehicle modifications required. No blending required. Blue Fuel Gasoline — a profoundly simple solution.

For a summary of the case for renewable methanol and gasoline in British Columbia, click here for a printable pdf document.

"All the forces in the world are not so powerful as a new idea whose time has come." — Victor Hugo

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." — Max Planck