A Reluctant Fuel Is Put To Use

One of the biggest pollution problems that exits in the world today is car exhaust. Wouldn’t it be great to have a fuel that burned cleanly? Well, there is! The fuel is called methanol. There is only one really large hurdle that must be cleared before this fuel can be used to run cars. The hurdle is how to get the car started in below zero temperatures. Methanol does not evaporate very well in cold weather and the spark that today’s engines deliver in not sufficient to ignite this fuel.

There is still hope for this fuel because Dr. Douglas Dale, Professor and Chairman of mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta, and his colleague Dr. Peter Smy are using a grant to explore an unconventional, but promising alternative. Their goal is to develop a reliable system with enough electrical energy to cause the methanol to evaporate and ignite.

With other fuels like gasoline there is a large vapour component. With a spark the vapour will ignite and a flame sweeps through the mixture. This causes more of the fuel to vaporize and the process continues.

The solution that these two engineers have come up with is a dual ignition system that features a powerful plasma jet igniter that starts the combustion process. This is then followed up by a standard ignition that keeps the engine going. The plasma injector is similar to those used in jet engines. The spark delivered from this is 100 times more energetic than a conventional ignition system. These studies are being performed with safety standards in mind, of course.

Methanol will not work in today’s cars because methanol makes the metals in the automobile pit easily and gaskets swell up and leak. The pure methanol cars have special metals and gaskets to prevent this from happening. Dr. Dale is presently awaiting the delivery of a special vehicle from the Chrysler Corporation that is fitted to operate on methanol fuel.

In experiments Dr. Dale and Dr. Smy have successfully run a car on methanol in -20 ^oC temperatures. Their goal for now is to keep methanol as viable option. Gasoline will remain the fuel of choice for now, but petroleum reserves arerunning low and methanol may look more and more attractive in the future.