UC Irvine Institute of Transportation Studies

Methanol is widely regarded as a promising alternative to petroleum-based fuels in a wide variety of uses, including transportation. The primary advantages would be lower air · pollution and diversification of energy sources. Interest is strong in California and especially in the Los Angeles air basin, leading to recently announced plans by the South Coast Air Quality Management District to begin converting large fleets of cars and buses to methanol. 

Transit buses are an especially promising place to begin a strategy of using methanol as a transportation fuel. Their emissions are very visible and affect crowds of people, and the buses themselves are mostly operated in fleets by public agencies. In addition, federal emissions standards for heavy-duty diesel vehicles are especially strict for transit buses starting in 1991. 

Our project focused primarily on the air pollution benefits of converting transit buses to methanol fuel. We used two different methods: cost-benefits analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis. Most of the analysis was carried out at one assumed price of diesel fuel and one or more assumed prices for methanol fuel, but we have also considered the mechanisms by which the two prices might be linked together.