The application prospect and challenge of the alternative methanol fuel in the internal combustion engine

In the context of global carbon neutrality, the internal combustion engines aim to further reduce the carbon emission and improve the fuel economy for the transportation sector. Methanol is treated as a renewable, reliability, and applicability energy, which also shows some superior physicochemical properties compared to the traditional fossil fuels. However, some challenges such as cold start issue, low fuel economy, high unregulated emissions need to address before the methanol widely applies in the engines. This article comprehensively reviews the physicochemical properties and production processes of the methanol, the cold start issue of the methanol engine, and emission and combustion characteristics of the methanol engine for evaluating its potential effect of emission reduction and energy saving in the transportation sector. In addition, different optimization strategies and advanced technologies are proposed and comprehensively discussed in this paper for addressing the issues of the cold start, combustion and emissions of the methanol engines in the real application. Finally, the conclusions and prospects of the methanol engine are presented for promoting its application in the transportation sector and further reducing the carbon emission in the near future, thereby achieving the carbon peak and carbon neutrality in the China.