Methanol for Cars?

We all know that the world is in need of a green revolution.

The primary goal is to search for energy alternatives. There have been a fair share of developments in the past years, but nothing could match the power capacities of petrol pound for pound. And I firmly believe that it will stay that way for a long time.

The latest attempt is hoisted by the British automaker Lotus. They recently revealed the Tri-fuel Exige 270E, which is to be powered by methanol (At least that was their concept). It promises to be one of the most powerful Exiges ever, despite, housing the latest green technologies available.

The 270E sports a standard supercharged Toyota engine with a twist: it is modified to run on three different fuels (methanol, ethanol and petrol). The fantastic thing about it is that it can run on any combination of the three fuels – meaning it holds them all in one gas tank.

The use of methanol is revolutionary. It will not need high pressure tanks and scientists claim that it can combust more efficiently compared to diesel. Furthermore, it can be synthesized from hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a main contributor to Global Warming, making good use of it will not only be cheap but will also put bad pollutants to good use.

The catch is that CO2 is not easy to recover from the atmosphere. However, Lotus claims that technology will soon eliminate that problem. Methanol-fuelled cars will be environmentally friendly.

Lotus even claimed that methanol will be a future alternative for energy. And conversion of a typical petrol vehicle to a methanol vehicle will only cost £40. Sounds great?

There’s even more. Methanol allows you to get extra power because it has a higher octane rating than petrol. The output of the Toyota engine jumps from 237 to 267 horsepower; this means that Exige can reach 60 miles per hour in 3.88 seconds.

Viva la GREEN revolution!

- Dave Collins

Sources: TopGear