Counterpoint Methanol | Green Energy News

June 2, 2002 – Vol.7 No.10

COUNTERPOINT METHANOL.

DaimlerChrysler rival General Motors claims that in a well-to-wheels (full cycle) analysis of greenhouse gas emissions, methanol when from derived from natural gas for use in on-board reformer vehicles, such as NECAR 5, shows no reductions of emissions relative to conventional gasoline or diesel internal combustion engines or gasoline reformer fuel cell vehicles.

The company, which is developing hydrogen fuel cells in-house, has also said that there is no need to build a costly and temporary fueling infrastructure for methanol or natural gas fuel cell vehicles. GM believes that a gasoline-like fuel should be developed in the near term for fuel cell vehicles, and a hydrogen infrastructure built in the long term.

A well-to-wheels study of greenhouse gas emissions by GM was completed last year and a similar study is now underway by the company in Europe. The early findings of the new study show that hydrogen from natural gas (depending on the source of natural gas) would be an attractive choice in terms of greenhouse gas reduction. However, to eliminate greenhouse gases altogether, hydrogen would have to be made with renewable energy such as wind power or biomass fuels.

BP, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalFinaElf are participants in this year’s study which will be released this summer. Both studies use a publicly available (yes, you can have one) computer modeling tool from the U.S. Argonne National Labs Transportation Technology R&D Center known as GREET (Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation). Start your browse for GREET, as well as various studies at http://www.transportation.anl.gov/ (click What’s New). For the GM press release regarding last year’s study visit http://www.gm.com/company/gmability/environment/products/fuel_cells/wells_wheels_032101.html