Science/Technology
Fuel for Thought: Methanol
USC chemists receive a first-ever $1 million prize for their innovative research on alternative fuels.
USC Dornsife chemists George Olah, a Nobel laureate, and G.K. Surya Prakash PhD ’78, director of Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, received the $1 million Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in Alternative Fuels for Transportation prize for their groundbreaking research. It recognizes their work on the methanol economy, a concept to use methanol to replace fossil fuels and petroleum-based energy sources.
So what is methanol and how might it fuel our future?