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  "Converting Coal into Liquid Car Fuel"

  The overall point of the article is well-taken.  However, I think one point you made in the 3rd paragraph deserves more exploration - which, thankfully, can start from the link you provided to the FT article. That article had this to say about "technologies to convert coal into liquid car fuel" :

  "Methanol, a chemical usually derived from coal, can be added to petrol to create a cleaner-burning fuel. When oil prices are high, it is also cheaper."
  ...
  "...officials had complained that the NDRC had been holding back the development of methanol in favour of ethanol, which is mainly made using corn in China."
  ...
  "The two methanol standards...use fuel with 15 per cent and 85 per cent of methanol respectively."

  So, it looks like methanol is a) cleaner than oil, and b) replacing ethanol, the unsustainability of which I have read about in this magazine many times (and which is even referenced in this very article)

  Would China be doing itself and the world a big favor if it put methanol, or methanol mixed with oil, into its car engines instead of just oil?

  I know Grist has written about Coal-to-liquid fuels here: http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/5/155252/7171

  but is this methanol thing the same?  On Following U.S. consumerism through the fields of China and Brazil posted 2 years, 7 months ago 6 Responses