Stockpiling methanol and/or dimethyl ether for fuel and energy reserves

WWW.BLUEFUELENERGY.COM: According to a US Patent Application Publication (No: US2009/0320356 A1), Nobel Prize-winner George Olah and his Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute colleage, G.K. Surya Prakash, authors of “Beyond Oil and Gas: the Methanol Economy”, have applied for a patent for an invention relating to “a method of stockpiling a fuel source by storing methanol or dimethyl ether in appropriate storage facilities to provide an alternative fuel source that can be used to avoid shortages due to unavailability, limited availability or excessive costs of oil.” These facilities can be natural or man-made, such as an underground tank, an above-ground tank, or a salt dome.

A fundamental premise behind the invention is that the world is facing an oil crisis and that the US’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), established in the 1970s to maintain an emergency oil supply, is facing daunting challenges, including hurricanes, political unrest in oil producing countries, and overall oil shortages, as well as the fact that oil poses several safety issues, such as its extreme flammability. Another premise is that to mitigate climate change and pollution, renewable, alternative, clean-burning, low-carbon/carbon-neutral fuels need to be widely adopted. Professor Olah and his colleagues at Loker have also patented novel methods of production for methanol and/or dimethyl ether using the hydrogenative chemical recycling of carbon dioxide. To read more about the perspectives of professors Olah and Surya Prakash, click here.