DMFC allows the use of methanol as fuel without requiring a fuel processor to extract hydrogen from the methanol. It constitutes a zero-emission electric vehicle drive train. Automotive industry leaders conclude that within two decades, between 7 and 20 percent of new cars sold in the world will be powered by fuel cells. We can envision a global fleet of 40 million FCVs on the road by 2020. With fuel cell technology now moving out of the laboratory, the research emphasis has shifted to reducing costs in preparation for mass production.
Methanol is one of the safest and most environmentally sound fuels available.
In the United States, there are over 180,000 vehicle fires each year in which gasoline is the first material to ignite. Both methanol and MTBE are highly soluble in water and poorly adsorb to subsurface soil, the similarity in the behavior of the two compounds in the environment ends there. Ubiquitous in nature, methanol is easily and quickly degraded in the environment by a diverse range of microorganisms under most environmental conditions that use methanol as a source of carbon and energy. Compared to gasoline, the environmental impacts of methanol are much more benign. Due to its high rate of biodegradation, more than 100 wastewater treatment plants in the United States add methanol to accelerate the removal of nitrates in the final stages of sewage treatment before the wastewater is discharged into sensitive oceans and rivers.