Chinese Car Maker Geely Leads Development Of Another American Invention - Methanol Vehicles (Boy Are Our "Experts" Stupid Or Traitors?)

Co-Publishers Note June 2021: During an amazing 2006 visit by The Auto Channel co-founders Marc Rauch and Bob Gordon to the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute at the University of Southern California (USC) to interview the Noble Prize winning George Olah whose research in the chemistry of hydrocarbons has led to high-octane fuels and more easily degradable hydrocarbons. He argues that storing energy in the form of methanol, not hydrogen, could end our dependence on fossil fuels and transform carbon dioxide from a global-warming liability into an essential raw material for a methanol-based economy.and his team of Drs. Goeppert and Prakash, all renowned carbon scientists and together the authors of Beyond Oil and Gas; The Methanol Economy". During our meeting they demonstrated to us just how Methanol can easily become the world's zero emissions mobility fuel and as a game-changer how clean Methanol can be made from dirty coal.

As my follow up to our California meeting I visited with Kentucky's Coal Czar to offer him what The Auto Channel saw as a slam dunk...revive the Coal industry, eliminate poison gasoline and keep mother nature happy...what a concept for cash starved coal Kentucky and thousands of coal miners who looked to Frankfort for a viable healthy future.ut I guess I was speaking unintelligible Brooklynese to a Kentuckian because our meeting went nowhere and I was sent on my way.

Now here it is 2021 15 years later and the Chinese (of course) are working to clean their air and profit from their Methanol investments...its amazing to me just how blind American Bureaucrats are to recognize a change that will be good for Kentucky, Good For America and Good For The World ...oh well.

BEIJING June 13, 2021; Reuters reported that Chinese automaker Geely will keep working on vehicles powered by methanol even though the effort may fail, chairman Li Shufu said on Sunday.

Li Shufu wearing a suit and tie: FILE PHOTO: Zhejiang Geely Holding Group's Chairman Li attends Baidu's annual AI developers conference Baidu Create 2019 in Beijing© Reuters/Sun Yilei FILE PHOTO: Zhejiang Geely Holding Group's Chairman Li attends Baidu's annual AI developers conference Baidu Create 2019 in Beijing Zhejiang-based Geely, among a small number of automakers developing methanol-powered vehicles, is testing methanol taxis in some western Chinese cities as well as developing methanol-powered trucks at its commercial vehicles unit.

Li said Geely, which owns Volvo Cars and 9.7% stake in Daimler AG, invested in Carbon Recycling International, an Icelandic company, to work on technologies to produce methanol with carbon dioxide, in a way to lower overall carbon emissions.

"We will keep exploring methanol vehicle technologies. Of course it might fail in the end, but currently we are still working on it," Li told an industry conference in the western city of Chongqing, without elaborating.

Methanol fuel would boost China's energy independence as the country has huge amounts of coal, which can be converted to methanol. Geely's Li has also said he expects methanol vehicles to be cleaner than gasoline models.

Li did not offer details of the technology. He has told Reuters that Geely would expand production of methanol-powered vehicles.

Geely is also developing battery electric vehicles, petrol-electric hybrid cars and hydrogen commercial vehicles.

China, the world's biggest auto market, is developing electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Tony Munroe; Editing by William Mallard)