Current Status of Research on Methanol as an Alternative Fuel to Conventional Fuels

With the rapid development of China's economy and society, the domestic demand for automobiles is growing explosively. At the same time, the dependence of China's crude oil on foreign countries exceeds 65%. This is a great hidden danger to the sustainable development of China's economy and energy security. Automobile consumes a large amount of petroleum resources, and automobile exhaust is one of the main factors causing environmental pollution. In view of the dual pressure of energy saving and emission reduction, methanol has been favored by many researchers for its many advantages (such as cleanliness, environmental protection, renewable and high accessibility). In this paper, the resource extensibility of methanol, the physicochemical properties of methanol, the application characteristics of methanol in internal combustion engine and the comparison of the combustion performance of methanol with traditional fuels are summarized and analyzed.