The United States is set to significantly increase its capacity to produce alternative transportation fuel over the next two years. New plants designed to produce methanol out of natural gas are expected to come on stream this year and next, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) says . The higher methanol production capacity will not only boost the U.S. production of the fuel which can be used as an alternative transportation fuel or blended into gasoline to increase engine efficiency and cut air pollution; the higher capacity will also increase the industrial use of natural gas and ensure more, and diverse, use of the soaring natural gas production, especially in the key gas producing regions—the Appalachia basin and the Permian. In 2019 and 2020, three new natural gas-to-methanol plants are expected to start up in the United States—two in the Gulf Coast and one in West Virginia. They will increase […]