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Text/Liu Dandan
Source: Shentu (ID: shentucar)
Methanol car is a high-frequency word that has recently appeared in the automotive circle.
Like pure electric vehicles and hydrogen energy vehicles, methanol vehicles are also new energy vehicles. However, methanol vehicles are not powered or hydrogenated, and they rely entirely on methanol fuel for driving on the road.
In China, pure electric vehicles are the most mainstream new energy vehicle development route, but one of the biggest problems is that they are limited by batteries, cannot run too far, and have range anxiety. There is no range anxiety for hydrogen energy vehicles, but the cost of hydrogen fuel itself is too high to be rolled out on a large scale.
In contrast, methanol cars with no mileage anxiety, easy storage, and low cost look like a better solution.
A series of support from the policy side is also flocking to this track.
In 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other eight ministries and commissions jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on the Application of Methanol Vehicles in Some Areas”; in 2021, methanol vehicles were officially included in the unified management of the national automobile industry; in September this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology made it clear that the next step will increase Efforts have been made to promote methanol vehicles; Guizhou, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan and other places have already started to promote them.
With its own advantages and policy support, in the critical period of vigorously promoting the dual-carbon strategy, will methanol vehicles become another star player after they will grow into pure electric products?
How many advantages does methanol car have?
How many advantages methanol vehicles have, we have to start from the background of developing new energy.
Gasoline vehicles will emit a large amount of carbon emissions during the use process, which is one of the culprits of global warming. According to the calculation results of China Automobile Data, in 2021, the total carbon emission of my country’s automobiles (including passenger cars and commercial vehicles) will be 1.21 billion tons, exceeding 10% of the national total carbon emissions.
Affecting the environment is one thing, and more importantly, my country’s oil reserves are not large, and most of the oil needs to be imported from other countries.
In order to protect the environment and reduce the consumption of non-renewable energy, many countries around the world have formulated plans to develop clean energy and achieve carbon neutrality. BYD stopped selling gasoline vehicles in April this year.
Fuel vehicles are no longer sold, and this gap has to be filled by new energy sources. However, the energy industry has an “energy impossible triangle” theory, that is, it is currently impossible to find an energy source that can meet the three conditions of clean and low-carbon, stable and safe supply, and low price at the same time.
Taking electric vehicles as an example, the cost of power batteries has always been high, and the cost has accounted for 40%-60% of the whole vehicle, which greatly limits the development of electric vehicles. Energy replenishment for electric vehicles is also a problem. Consumers can’t avoid battery life anxiety after charging for a few hours. In addition, more than 70% of domestic electricity is thermal power. There are still different opinions in the industry on whether it is environmentally friendly.
The hydrogenation of hydrogen energy vehicles is as simple as adding gasoline, but the four processes of hydrogen production, hydrogen transportation, hydrogen storage, and hydrogenation are not low in cost in each link, and the hydrogen properties are active, and transportation and storage are also difficult problems.
Methanol is currently considered by the industry as the most likely to break the “energy impossible triangle” new energy.
Looking at environmental protection first, gasoline combustion not only produces carbon dioxide, but also polluting gases such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, lead and sulfur oxides, while methanol is fully burned, only carbon dioxide and water are produced. According to the data from the pilot operation of methanol vehicles of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, compared with gasoline vehicles, methanol vehicles can improve energy efficiency by about 21% and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 26%.
In terms of storage capacity, the raw material of methanol is very easy to obtain. As a renewable energy source, the three most common types of methanol are low-carbon methanol, electric methanol and biomass methanol. The latter two are the production of hydrogen through the electrolysis of water with renewable energy and the synthesis of methanol through carbon dioxide synthesis, or the production of biomass methanol from straw, municipal waste, etc.
The most worth mentioning is the first one. my country’s high-sulfur and high-ash inferior coal accounts for more than 40% of coal resources. Although these coals are not suitable for use as fuel, they can be used to produce methanol. about 1.4 tons of carbon dioxide. This means that methanol can not only maximize energy utilization, but also protect the environment, killing two birds with one stone.
Methanol fuel from a wide range of sources has no cost concerns. It is liquid at room temperature and pressure, and it is safer and more convenient to store, transport, and use. It is as convenient to add methanol as refueling, avoiding various defects of electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel vehicles. .
On the whole, compared with gasoline vehicles, methanol vehicles are cleaner and more efficient; compared with pure electric vehicles, methanol vehicles have no cruising range anxiety, and energy replenishment is simple; compared with hydrogen fuel vehicles, methanol vehicles are more convenient for storage and transportation, and the cost The advantage is obvious.
It is no wonder that methanol is called clean “coal”, cheap “oil”, simple “gas”, mobile “electricity” and liquid “hydrogen” in the industry.
What’s stopping methanol cars from taking off?
From the perspective of raw material advantages, methanol vehicles are enough to grab the limelight of electric vehicles, gasoline vehicles, hydrogen energy vehicles and even plug-in hybrid vehicles and become star players.
But the reality is that pure electric vehicles have become the mainstream route in the new energy market, and even more complex hydrogen energy vehicles have received many important appearances, such as demonstration operations at the Winter Olympics. Methanol cars are still in small corners that everyone can’t see, and they rarely attract attention.
According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2021, domestic sales of pure electric vehicles will be 2.91 million. In comparison, if the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched the pilot work in five provinces and ten cities in 2012, it has been ten years since the promotion of methanol vehicles, but the current national inventory is only about 30,000.
Not only the domestic methanol vehicle development is slow, but the global methanol vehicle market has not seen any new developments for so many years.
The United States is the first country in the world to develop methanol fuel. In the 1980s, the United States began to sell methanol vehicles. In 1996, Ford also sold a Taurus-fueled car that could run on methanol, ethanol and gasoline, and GM and Chrysler also launched such flex-fuel vehicles. But in 1998, Ford stopped the production of methanol vehicles, and almost no other car companies in the United States have produced methanol vehicles since then.
There are so many advantages but not development. There are actually many complicated reasons behind this, such as the battle of technical routes and infrastructure construction.
The vigorous development of new energy vehicles actually started in recent years. In terms of time, domestic pure electric vehicles and hydrogen energy vehicles have been the first to receive policy support. Coupled with the huge subsidies given to electric vehicles by the state, almost all car companies Both give priority to the research and development of electric vehicles, followed by hydrogen energy vehicles.
The fastest and most in-depth transformation of China is betting on electric vehicles, which has led to the transformation of electric vehicles on a global scale. Methanol cars that have not received policy support and that no one has taken the lead in are going to the back row.
“There is an objective reason for the lack of opportunities. Another subjective reason for the failure of methanol vehicles is the imperfect construction of the methanol fueling system.” Wei Anli, Secretary General of the Expert Steering Committee for the Promotion and Application of Methanol Vehicles of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told Shentu that at present, only some cities in China The promotion of methanol vehicles has been carried out, and the vehicles are mainly taxis, which are basically only active in this area. Leaving these pilot cities, other areas do not have the conditions for methanol fueling, which is a major obstacle to the promotion of methanol vehicles at present.
In addition to these big problems, methanol-fueled vehicles also have some small problems.
Different from electric energy and hydrogen energy, methanol has certain corrosiveness as a fuel. Alcohols have strong chemical activity and can corrode some alloys, plastics, synthetic rubber, etc., and these materials are common materials used in automobiles. During the combustion of methanol, if the combustion is incomplete, a small amount of organic corrosive substances such as aldehydes and acids will be produced, which will aggravate the damage to the car.
The adaptability of methanol-fueled vehicles is also relatively poor, and the boiling point is about 64 degrees, which means that it is very difficult for methanol-fueled vehicles to cold start in a low temperature environment.
Methanol itself is also toxic to the human body. If the intake is too much, it may cause blindness or even life-threatening. For someone who has never been exposed to methanol fuel, the toxic claims are daunting enough.
However, these are not difficult problems and can be solved by technical means.
Taking corrosiveness as an example, long-range new energy commercial vehicles have solved the problem of methanol fuel ablation through material upgrades. The data shows that the methanol engine of the long-range new energy commercial vehicle has passed the endurance test of more than 1500 hours.
How far are methanol cars from us?
Having said so many benefits of methanol vehicles, when will we be able to drive such a new energy vehicle that has the same aspects as refueling, no endurance anxiety, and enough green and low carbon?
Wei Anli believes that at least until the “15th Five-Year Plan” period (2026-2030), methanol vehicles can really be rolled out in the private consumer market.
At present, there are not many car companies promoting methanol products in the market. Only a few companies such as Geely, Yuanyuan New Energy Commercial Vehicles, Yutong Bus and FAW have publicly disclosed their products.
Among them, Geely is the car company with the deepest layout on the methanol track in China. As early as 2005, Geely started the research on methanol fuel and methanol vehicles. In the past 17 years, it has developed more than 20 methanol passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles. The maximum running mileage of a single vehicle exceeds 1.2 million kilometers, which verifies the reliability of methanol vehicles.
In June this year, Geely also launched the world’s first methanol hybrid car, the fourth-generation Emgrand alcohol-electric hybrid car. The car consumes about 9.2 liters of alcohol per 100 kilometers, which is equivalent to about 3 liters per 100 kilometers of fuel vehicles. To 0.3 yuan, the price is also very close to the people – 129,800 yuan.
There is no problem with the technical reserve of methanol vehicles, but the issue of where to add methanol has not been resolved. Therefore, for the development of methanol vehicles, one of the next more important things is the improvement of the energy supplement system.
Wei Anli told Shentu that the construction of methanol fuel replenishment and refueling facilities is not difficult. It can be simply adjusted on the basis of existing gas stations, and the cost is much lower than that of building hydrogen refueling stations. What is currently lacking is the content of the policy level. .
“Whether it is in the automobile market or for burning boilers, methanol has been used as a fuel, but methanol has not been incorporated into the country’s energy system.” Wei Anli said that if it is serious, methanol is still not a fuel at present.
If it is not included in the energy system, it is not considered a fuel, and the difficulty of promoting and applying methanol in local areas will be greatly increased.
However, eight ministries and commissions including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Public Security have issued documents or publicly recognized methanol fuel and advocated the development of methanol economy. On September 17, Zhang Jianhua, director of the National Energy Administration, pointed out that in the future, new ways and new ways to replace fossil energy such as green hydrogen, methanol, and ammonia will be actively explored.
These signals will be beneficial to methanol vehicles. At the same time, Wei Anli also told Shentu that almost all Chinese self-owned brand car companies are already setting up projects to make methanol cars.
When the policy and the upstream and downstream industrial chains start to promote together, the large-scale market-oriented development of methanol vehicles does not seem so out of reach.
On the whole, as one of the development routes of new energy vehicles, methanol vehicles have their advantages in many aspects. However, electric vehicles have become the mainstream development path around the world, and it is difficult for methanol vehicles to become the new mainstream in the short term. But in the long run, methanol vehicles have their own unique value, and now it just takes time to grow and grow.
*The title picture and the accompanying pictures in the text are from Visual China.
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