Alkyl ether fuels are favored by various manufacturers, but what is their safety level? Let’s all share our opinions.
Thread Content
Advocates of methanol ether fuels will surely end up as victims; the United States has explicitly prohibited the development of such fuels after determining that they cause severe harm to human health. Alcohol-ether fuels are being promoted for profit motives, disregarding the safety of the public. Due to the low vapor pressure of alcohol-ether fuels, vapor will definitely form inside the vehicle’s cabin. It’s something everyone can intuitively understand: after filling up at a gas station, one can smell gasoline in the cabin, which indicates that gasoline vapor is present there. The same will be true for alcohol-ether fuels. Everyone is aware of the harm that methanol vapor can cause to the human body; being exposed to such an environment for an extended period will certainly cause health problems for drivers and staff at gas stations.
What the original poster said makes a lot of sense; they are a careful person.
In essence, the use of methanol as a substitute for gasoline involves interests, as the poster mentioned; safety is of secondary importance. Methanol has similar toxicity and physical properties to gasoline (moderate toxicity, flammable and explosive). Many companies favor it because its price is much lower than that of gasoline, allowing for the addition of small amounts of methanol (usually not exceeding M15). However, there are also many opponents, mainly from the automobile manufacturing industry; widespread adoption (at levels above M15 and up to M100) would require engine modifications. (The Chinese Academy of Sciences has a car that runs entirely on 100% methanol, and the results are good, especially in terms of exhaust emissions.) This would mean that many production lines in China would have to be shut down or modified, at a very high cost
Reply to 3# 115115ddd: Alcohol-ether fuels can be used not only as automotive fuel; currently, in the kitchen equipment of restaurants in some cities, methanol is also being used as a fuel, which is extremely hazardous. :@
There are many technical challenges that need to be overcome; I hope this problem can be solved
The promotion of alcohol-ether fuels is not merely a matter of adapting the fuels themselves; more importantly, it requires automakers to make relevant modifications to the vehicle’s fuel systems. It’s difficult to scale up without **policy support.
Can it really replace oil? These days, there are many companies that claim to offer methanol-based gasoline and diesel; it’s not clear whether their technology is genuine or just a scam. The market does not accept methanol-based gasoline, but it is said that some merchants secretly add it, driven by profit motives