Vehicles may soon run on methane

For many years, scientists investigating the possibilities of methane powered cars, have been wrestling with the problems of finding a storage system for the vehicle that is, effective, economically viable, and most of all safe.

If these problems can be mastered, methane may well be the most viable alternative fuel for cars and other vehicles, one reason for this is availability, it is naturally produced and very cheap.

These technical hurdles have been the only reason that methane burning cars have not yet been seen on our roads. Now scientist Hong-Cai Zhou, and his associates have produced a study tackling these issues.

The answer may be found in something called, metal-organic frameworks known as MOF’s. These are crystalline substances that are very highly porous. These MOF’s the study concludes may well be a viable storage unit for methane in vehicles, because of their large surface areas.
Unfortunately, the MOF’s that have been tested so far have failed to reach required DOE levels needed for viable on-board fuel storage, says Hong-Cai Zhou.

This new report does, however consider development a new material called PCN-14, a new variant of MOF, which is said to have a very high surface area exceeding 2000 m2/g.

Laboratory testing of the new product has shown that this compound, which is made up of tiny clusters of nano-sized units, will have a methane storage capacity 28% greater than DOE required limits.

All this may mean that in the near future, methane powered vehicles could become commonplace on our city streets.