Methanol can be used as a transportation fuel, transformed to synthetic diesel or gasoline, and used to produce other chemicals.
Methanol synthesis is a well-developed commercial process, and its production is almost exclusively (90%) from syngas, a gaseous mixture consisting of primarily carbon monoxide and hydrogen and made from the gasification of feedstocks at high temperature under conditions where the amount of oxygen is less than what is needed for complete combustion. Syngas can be produced from any hydrocarbon feedstock, including natural gas, petroleum products, coal, and biomass.
Pure methanol (M100) is used as a fuel only in high-performance racing engines and airplanes. The most common use of methanol as a fuel is M85 (a mixture of 85 methanol and 15 gasoline by volume). Methanol can be used to produce synthetic gasoline or diesel fuels, but commercial production does not presently occur.
Methanol is used mostly to produce other industrial industrial organic chemicals. Formaldehyde (35% of global methanol production) is used in the manufacture of various construction board products. Methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) uses 25% of world methanol production and is used as an oxygenate in gasoline. Environmental problems are leading to the phase-out of MTBE use in the U.S. Acetic acid (9% of methanol production) is used to make latex emulsion resins (for paints, adhesives, paper coatings, and textile finishing agents) and in plastics. Dimethyl ether (DME) is used to produce aerosol propellants.