Hi everyone,
This time, i would like to share the information on this newly emerging fuel in the market. Dimethyl ether (DME) is regarded as a new alternative for clean energy media. It is described as colourless and clean gas. DME can be produced from various sources such as natural gas, coal, waste from pulp and paper mills, forest products, agricultural by-products and municipal waste.
The potential applications of DME as alternative fuel are listed as follows;
- DME can be used as a fuel for thermal power generation. During burning process, DME is a fuel that does not produce SOx or particulate with extremely small emission of NOx and CO2. Apart from that, the performance and reliability of DME in power generation is comparable to natural gas. This fact has been approved by General electric, Hitachi and Mitsubishi which utilize DME as fuel in their gas turbines.
- DME can be used as substitute for diesel as the the cetane rating is high; being 55-60, very high oxygen content, cheaper than diesel, requires very low injection pressure and produce little pollution from combustion process. The DME tests are currently conducted by Volvo and Ford Europe
- DME can be used as LPG substitute as it has quite similar properties with LPG. So, most of LPG facilities can be utilized for DME.
- DME can be used as fuel for domestic cooking and heating. DME can be blended with LPG and used without modifications to equipment or distribution pipelines.
- DME has potential as fuel for fuel cells as it is favourable on the heat balance and low formation of reaction heat.
Ok, another breakthrough discovery on alternative fuel, but the truth is whether it is feasible or whether feedstock will be abundantly available.
ReplyDeleteTaking a typical case of Malaysia's very own biodiesel program, which was developed way back in 80s, but only implemented recently. Even that, the original 5% blending had now revised down to somewhere 3%, or is it 2%? Why, because of feedstock price, resistance from petroleum companies, engine manufacturers, not to mention sentiments on the subsidies. Until and unless some affirmative policy are in place and barriers done away, nobody will take notice or bother to seriously consider. It's an undeniable fact.
In most cases, biofuel may be perceived sustainable, but in reality. energy input is still needed to convert from the raw feedstock to the finished product.
I guess the challenge is for us to lead a "sustainable" lifestyle, making use of our wise judgement in reducing our own carbon footprint.
Yup, it's true that DME is just a conversion process of the raw feedstock into cleaner final product and not really represents sustainable energy use. But , looking at its potential as cleaner fuel, it would be a good idea to adopt this technology. This can be a reliable fuel especially for large-scale electricity generation. From my readings, I believe that DME has its own strong point for electricity generation and as LPG substitute. China is aggresively increasing its own domestic production to cater for transportation and domestic cooking & heating. However, i agree that affirmative policies are urgently needed to increase the use of such fuel.
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