Methanol (methyl alcohol) is also known as wood alcohol or wood spirit.  It’s a colorless liquid that burns with non-luminous flame and is a violent poison.  Methanol is one of the basic building blocks of the chemical industry and one of the largest-volume commodity materials produced in the world today, with primary outlets being resins for building products and numerous types of polymers and plastics.

Methanol Fuel
Methanol is primarily used as base for the production of other important chemicals which in turn are utilized in the plastics, textile, paint and auto industries.  Methanol is higher in octane than gasoline and often used as a fuel additive in reformulated gasoline (MTBE), rocket propellant and as a fuel blend for a variety of vehicular racing sports.

Methanol Production
Methanol is made primarily from natural gas sources via catalytic synthesis similar in methodology to the Syntec Process.  Natural gas is reformed with steam to produce syngas which is catalytically reacted to make methanol. 

While conversion costs for this technology are low, the price of methanol in the past few years has ranged from $0.70 - $1.80 a gallon.  The key driver is the price of natural gas - a non-renewable and permanently declining resource.

Production capacities for methanol are estimated to be in the range of 30-40MM metric tons per year. 

MTBE
In 1990, the United States passed the Clean Air Act, which required gasoline to contain 2.7% oxygen by weight.   This was achieved by adding oxygenates such as ethanol and methanol to reformulated gasoline.  Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) is a methanol derivative and was the most widely used oxygenate with an annual consumption of over 4 billion gallons in the US alone.  Concerns over the health and safety risks of MTBE contaminating water supplies, however, led to legislative bans in several states including California and New York.