[Stoves] Thanks to Tom Reed for His Perspective Setting Remarks onMethanol, the "Other" Alcohol

Thu Jul 6 17:14:33 CDT 2006

Harry 

I visited several gas flares n Nigeria when attending a renewable energy
conference in Nigeria in 2004. They are a health hazard for communities.
Some petroleum companies now run them laterally in Nigeria...out of sight
out of mind. This makes the toxic impacts on the surrounding communities
worse. I am not sure how many gas flares are being burned off in Nigeria
now, but it was about 100 in 2004. 

It’s a terrible waste this energy being flared off. Kerosene is still the
king cooking fuel in urban Nigeria. It doesn't make sense to be using this
potential jet fuel as cooking fuel when we are flaring off methanol. Using
flared methanol also has GHG benefits relative to the use of kerosene. 

Roger Samson
www.reap-canada.com

-----Original Message-----
From: stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Harry Stokes
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 5:30 PM
To: 'Thomas Reed'; 'Dean Still'
Cc: 'GASIFICATION'; 'Stoves-List'
Subject: [Stoves] Thanks to Tom Reed for His Perspective Setting Remarks
onMethanol, the "Other" Alcohol

Tom Reed's are words of wisdom.  As energy needy as the world is, we simply
cannot rule methanol out.  We have lived for a 100 years with highly toxic
petroleum fuels; surely we can learn how to use the environmentally benign
alcohols, including methanol, safely.  Since methanol is an easy and cheap
way to use natural gas, and since many of the poorest of the African
countries do have non-commercial (in large scale terms) supplies of natural
gas (enough to provide hundreds of years of cooking energy for those
countries), why not learn how to use methanol, as well as ethanol, safely
and effectively?  These two alcohols go hand in hand; having recourse to one
makes the other more feasible because, together, they may be able to provide
the quantities necessary to make a dent in the need for clean cooking
energy.

Nigeria is responsible for some 40% of all gas flared worldwide.  The World
Bank is promoting large scale utilization of this gas, for example the
construction of LNG facilities to freeze the gas and ship it to the West.
This is an enormously expensive undertaking, which only the West can afford.
This same gas could be made cheaply and easily into methanol at the flow
station or the wellhead for use as an all-purpose fuel for cooking,
lighting, distributed electricity generation, and so on.  It would then be
available for the Nigerian people themselves, who deeply resent their
current state of deep energy poverty.  There is a lot of talk now in Nigeria
about ethanol from cassava.  Shifting to an alcohol energy economy in
Nigeria for domestic needs could make a lot of sense, wherein both ethanol
and methanol would play a role.

To put in perspective the amount of natural gas that Nigeria flares, there
is enough gas flared to provide ample cooking energy for every family in all
of West Africa on a daily basis.  This energy is currently going into the
atmosphere as flared and vented gas, with enormous GHG commitment. 

I would refer to the very important statement set forth in "A Global Clean
Cooking Fuel Initiative" by José Goldemberg, Thomas B. Johansson, Amulya
K.N. Reddy and Robert H. Williams, published in Energy for Sustainable
Development, Volume VIII, No. 3, September 2004.  This call to action can
only be met by turning to alcohols as well as the other options, for there
is only so much LPG, only so much kerosene, only so much potential for
biogas.  The need is so great, we simply can't afford to rule out any energy
carrier, especially one so good and versatile as methanol.

Therefore, let me express my gratitude to Tom Reed, as usual, for his
perspective setting remarks.

Harry 

-----Original Message-----
From: stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Reed
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 7:51 AM
To: Dean Still
Cc: GASIFICATION; 'Stoves-List'
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Methanol stove fuel. wasRe:
[Gasification]Methanoltoxicity?

Dear All:

Please let us be very aware of the toxicity of methanol, but please let 
us not overly stress the toxicity of methanol.  As we leave the oil 
based economy for an alcohol based economy, we will need to use both 
alcohols as liquid fuels.  Ethanol can't handle the job alone because it 
requires sugar or starch (and maybe even cellulose, but don't hold your 
breath.

Yes methanol is toxic and if you drink 100-300 ml you will die and less 
can make you go blind.  And yes, it smells innocuous so, it needs an 
oderant to identify it.  And yes, the flame is invisible - so is that 
from ethanol, and so both need an illuminant to signal their use. 

When ethanol was first distributed in France as an industrial solvent 
about 1900, 10% methanol was added as a denaturant.  After 10 years they 
discovered that while the Parisians found it foul tasting, the country 
people were still drinking it and so they had to find better denaturants. 

Carbon monoxide is even more deadly - odorless and three breaths can 
kill.  But it was universally distributed with hydrogen from 1800-1940 
when the methane pipelines were developed. 

Fuels are not to be confused with beverages, and should be so labeled.  
That doesn't prevent methanol from being an excellent, high octane fuel, 
used in preference to gasoline at the race track.  Methanol has already 
been widely distributed as both a gasoline additive (M-10) and as a 
gasoline substitute (M-85). 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

There seems to be a battle shaping up between the promoters of ethanol 
and the advocates of methanol.  As we leave the cheap oil era we will 
need both to replace gasoline. 

Yours truly, 

TOM REED         THE BIOMASS ENERGY FOUNDATION
Dean Still wrote:
> Wikipedia says:
>
> A methanol flame is almost colorless. Care should be exercised around
> burning methanol to avoid burning oneself on the almost invisible fire.
>
> Because of its poisonous properties, methanol is frequently used as a
> denaturant additive for ethanol manufactured for industrial uses- this
> addition of a poison economically exempts industrial ethanol from the
rather
> significant 'liquor' taxes that would otherwise be levied as it is the
> essence of all potable adult beverages. Methanol is often called wood
> alcohol because it was once produced chiefly as a byproduct of the
> destructive distillation of wood. It is now produced synthetically by a
> multi-step process. In short, natural gas and steam are reformed in a
> furnace to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide; then, hydrogen and carbon
> monoxide gases react under pressure in the presence of a catalyst. The
> reforming step is endothermic and the synthesis step is exothermic.
>
> Health and safety
> Methanol...is toxic by its breakdown (toxication) by the enzyme alcohol
> dehydrogenase in the liver by forming formic acid and formaldehyde which
> cause blindness by destruction of the optic nerve. [2] Methanol ingestion
> can also be fatal due to its CNS depressant properties in the same manner
as
> ethanol poisoning. It enters the body by ingestion, inhalation, or
> absorption through the skin. Fetal tissue will not tolerate methanol.
> Dangerous doses will build up if a person is regularly exposed to vapors
or
> handles liquid without skin protection. If methanol has been ingested, a
> doctor should be contacted immediately. The usual fatal dose: 100-125 mL
(4
> fl oz). Toxic effects take hours to start, and effective antidotes can
often
> prevent permanent damage.
>
> Best,
>
> Dean
>
>
>
>
>
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>   
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