| Abstract |
Methanol and DME are emerging as greener substitute of gasoline and diesel, respectively, due to soot-free combustion and low NOx emissions with high EGR of these fuels. Focused research efforts are thus needed not only for developing technologies but also on defining complete value chain to establish sustainable production routes. Majority of the present methanol and DME production processes utilize coal and natural gas as the feedstock, whereas other feedstocks are not found techno-economically viable for commercial plants. Thus, there is a significant research gap and scope of innovation to make these fuels particularly from alternate resources like biomass, bio-oil, and carbon dioxide. This chapter delineates pervasiveness and potential of methanol and DME in the world as fuel, the chemistry, and the sustainability of different pathways for their production from each of the possible feedstock like coal, petcoke, natural gas, biomass, and carbon dioxide. |
