From paints and plastics, furniture and carpeting, to car parts and windshield wash fluid, methanol is a chemical building block used in making hundreds of products that touch our daily lives. Methanol is also an emerging energy fuel for running our cars, trucks, buses, and even electric power turbines. Methanol, also known as methyl alcohol or wood alcohol, is the simplest of all alcohols with the chemical formula CH3OH.
Methanol is a light, colorless, flammable liquid at room temperature, and contains less carbon and more hydrogen than any other liquid fuel. It is a stable biodegradable chemical that is produced and shipped around the globe everyday for a number of industrial and commercial applications. Methanol occurs naturally in the environment, and quickly breaks down in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions.
This simple alcohol can be made from virtually anything that is, or ever was, a plant. This includes common fossil fuels like natural gas and coal and renewable resources like biomass, landfill gas, and even power plant emissions and CO2 from the atmosphere.