Large-Volume Fuel Market Still Eludes Methanol

Du Pont applied to the Environmental Protection Agency last week for a Clean Air Act waiver that would allow the firm to blend up to 5% methanol and a minimum of 2.5% cosolvent alcohol with unleaded gasoline. EPA denied a similar Du Pont waiver request last year because, according to EPA, there weren't enough evaporative emissions data. A Du Pont spokesman vowed that the company would not submit another request until it was positive that it would be accepted. Based on the research and testing that went into the new effort, it seems likely that, this time, Du Pont's waiver request will sail through. If it does, it will be the first really good news for a beleaguered U.S. methanol industry in some time. And U.S. producers can use some good news, because they are squarely between a rock and a hard place. The rock might be regarded as serious overcapacity and only slowly rising demand. In the U.S., and throughout the world, there is much more methanol capacity than consumers can possibly use—and more is on the way. Traditional chemical markets for methanol are mature, and thus growing slowly. Together, they are not soaking up all the methanol now available, not to mention the new capacity that hasn't started up yet. And even though exciting new uses await methanol in Ci chemistry, these are a long way down the road. They will provide little relief for methanol producers until the 1990s. In the meantime, the world methanol situation is posing challenges for process designers (see page 31). ...