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The use of methanol and ethanol in spark-ignition (SI) engines forms a promising approach to decarbonizing transport and securing domestic energy supply. The physico-chemical properties of these fuels enable engines with increased performance and efficiency compared to their fossil fuel counterparts. An engine cycle code valid for alcohol-fuelled engines could help to unlock their full potential. However, the development of such a code is currently hampered by the lack of a suitable correlation for the laminar flame speed of alcohol-air-diluent mixtures. A literature survey showed that none of the existing correlations covers the entire temperature, pressure and mixture composition range as encountered in spark-ignition engines. For this reason, we started working on new correlations based on simulations with a one-dimensional chemical kinetics code. In this paper the properties of methanol and ethanol are first presented, together with their application in modern SI engines.