Fuel methanol made of natural gas or coal in large scale under adequate conditions can be substitute of petroleum products. In Japan now the fuel methanol is mainly considered as the fuel of internal combustion engines, however, the most profitable use of fuel methanol is the raw materials of petrochemicals industry. Ethylene and propylene can be made from by far higher yield than that from naphtha under mild conditions. Gasoline from methanol by MTB process contains about 30% of aromatic hydrocarbons. Against hydrocarbon steam reforming to make hydrogen carried out at 800-900°C, methanol can be steam reformed at 250300°C with more simple installation.
If the cost of calorific value of fuel methanol and petroleum products are same, the use of methanol as raw material is profitable far away than use of petroleum naphtha in Japan.