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Advantages

The fuel sells for about the same price as mid-grade gasoline

Vehicles being sold these days are flex-fuel vehicles, which means that any mixture of M85 and gasoline in the fuel tank can be used by the engine.

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Disadvantages

Methanol is more corrosive than gasoline.

Special oil additives are necessary in order to protect the engine.

Because the mixture of air to fuel is much richer than gasoline (about 8:1 by weight, compared to about 14:1 for gasoline), there is more liquid fuel available to wash oil off of cylinder walls during a cold start.

The richer fuel and air mixture needed by methanol also means that a given volume of gasoline will take you about 70% farther than the same tank full of methanol.

Being a pure chemical compound, methanol has a single boiling point, so that it can cause cold-start problems in cold weather, or vapor lock in hot.

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How is Methanol Made?

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Methanol is produced by the reforming of natural gas to create a synthesis gas, which is then fed into a reactor vessel in the presence of a catalyst to produce methanol and water vapor.

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