Methanol's Transformation To Commodity Status Stretches Supply

Abstract

Methanol is undergoing a renaissance. Beginning in the US in the fourth quarter of 1993, methanol has seen a transformation from a low-growth, low-priced, overly abundant commodity chemical into a high-demand, undersupplied, cost-price driven product. As the economic recovery has spread to the rest of the world, methanol demand has dramatically increased. this meteoric rise has been further sparked in the US by increased use of methanol as an ingredient in gasoline oxygenates required by the federal government. Increased demand has led to the consolidation of producers, a scramble to reopen existing capacity, addition of capacity via product conversion, and plans for various future capacity expansions. Methanol fits alongside the other long-standing, major organic commodity chemicals-ethylbenzene, ethylene, ethylene dichloride, formaldehyde, propylene, styrene, terephthalic acid, and vinyl chloride. Methanol also serves both as a building block for many other chemicals--formaldehyde, acetic acid, and terephthalic acid--and as a solvent for many industrial uses.