Lotus Exige Tri-Fuel

Lotus has just released its latest vehicle the Exige 270E Tri-Fuel, a vehicle that not only runs on petrol but biofuel and methanol.

It has the ability to run on any mixture of the three fuels as sensors enable the engine management system to adjust the combustion process to suit.

Lotus has built this vehicle to show that methanol is a viable fuel for cars of the future. Methanol is the simplest of alcohol based fuels, is a liquid at room temperature, can be transported easily and already has a manufacturing infrastructure.

Methanol can be extracted from natural gas, coal or biomass. It can also be acquired using the Carnol Process which extracts CO2 from industrial flues and cement production.

Methanol is only half as energy dense as petrol so you would need a fuel tank twice the size. This is still much better than going down the hydrogen road as hydrogen is only one fifth as dense and will require the engineering of an on-board hydrogen reformer.

Due to the higher octane rating of methanol this new Exige 270E Tri-Fuel develops up to 266 bhp when run on straight methanol, but the most impressive thing is that the vehicle is able to run so seamlessly on any mixture of fuels using on-board hardware that is available and used in cars today. Lotus points out that the only modifications required are the engine management changes and materials used in the fuel system. These material changes are because methanol is highly corrosive and will affect standard seals, pipes, plugs and injectors.

With the soaring cost of oil world wide this vehicle could be a prelude to what we all may be driving in the future.

See how carbon-neutral methanol fuel extraction works.

By NRMA Motoring, June 2008.
Information from Autocar.
Images courtesy of Autoblog Green.