https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=716
The Best Available Technology
The Clean Air Act requires that certain facilities employ Best Available
Control Technology to control emissions. Clean Air Act of 1990, section
169(3), 42 U.S.C. § 7479(3)
...an emission limitation based on the maximum degree of reduction of
each pollutant subject to regulation under this Act emitted from or
which results from any major emitting facility, which the permitting
authority, on a case-by-case basis, taking into account energy,
environmental, and economic impacts and other costs, determines is
achievable for such facility through application of production processes
and available methods, systems, and techniques, including fuel cleaning,
clean fuels, or treatment or innovative fuel combustion techniques for
control of each such pollutant.
Many of the problems caused by the release of regular diesel and bunker
fuel could be solved by use of Dimethyl Ether. It can be used to replace
petroleum diesel in all but a few applications, and is the best
available technology for fuels that generate electricity of power
transportation.
Our Position is Diesel Power is at the Fork in the Road
By providing electricity to the most remote locations including islands,
the North and South poles, and other places across the world, the diesel
engine has been a key invention in human history. Diesel engines are
used globally for trucking, shipping and rail transportation, along with
any other mode that needs efficient and reliable power.
No other technology can cover such a diverse range of applications. Out
of any standard internal or external combustion power source, the diesel
engine has the highest thermal efficiency. With a high compression ratio
and inherent lean burn, the engine allows heat dissipation by intake of
excess air which makes for an incredibly simple power source.
However, there are many problems associated with the continued use of
diesel as a fuel. It emits greenhouse gases and particulate matter that
degrade the environment, and foster dependence on volatile Middle East
oil reserves. Diesel has an expiry date, it can gel in low temperatures,
can get water logged and separates over time. It is poisonous to plants
and animals, pollutes water and soil if leaked into it, necessitates
layers of anti-pollution devices and can use up to 8 liters of purified,
fresh water for each liter of diesel produced. Today, the compression
engine is great power source that comes with a problematic fuel.
The Industry & Government Players Comment
California Div. of Measurements & Standards of the Dept. of Food &
Agriculture:
The use of fuels like DME will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions, improve air quality and lead to a positive impact on
California and the environment.
Kristin Macey, Director of the Division of Measurement Standards at
the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which issued the
latest approval of DME fuel
Dimethyl Ether – Keep the Engine, Change the Fuel
The challenge is to find a fuel for compression engines that is
environmentally friendly, stores easily and is transported simply. A
number of well-established processes mean Dimethyl Ether can be readily
synthesized from abundant natural gas and biomass feedstock. It is
benign, evaporates after a spill, burns smoke free with no sulfur and
reduced nitrous oxide, and generates 1 to 2 liters of water for each
liter of fuel produced. Unlike compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquid
natural gas (LNG), most importantly, DME is used in compression engines,
which substantially impacts the potential applications of this fuel over
LNG, CNG, Ethanol or Methanol. Finally, the path is clear for clean
diesel power across the globe.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials
provided by ChemBioPower Inc.
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https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=713
Dimethyl Ether – Keep the Engine, Change the Fuel
The challenge is to find a fuel for compression engines that is
environmentally friendly, stores easily and transported simply. A number
of well-established processes mean Dimethyl Ether can be readily
synthesized from abundant natural gas and biomass feedstock. It is
benign, evaporates after a spill, burns smoke free with no sulfur and
reduced nitrous oxide, and generates 1 to 2 liters of water for each
liter of fuel produced. Unlike compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquid
natural gas (LNG), most importantly, DME can be used in compression
engines, which substantially impacts the potential applications of this
fuel over LNG, CNG, Ethanol or Methanol. Finally, a clean-burning,
high-density liquid fuel that can directly replace diesel fuel in most
of its current applications.
Most global markets offer DME at a structurally lower price than diesel,
and this price gap is only expected to remain or even increase as diesel
prices stay significantly higher than those of shale produced natural
gas on an energy equivalent basis. This presents an excellent
opportunity for fuels derived from methane to gain an increased market
share. Production of DME is also inviting for markets with minimal local
petroleum sources but abundant in natural gas such as Latin America,
Africa and Southeast Asia.
DME also benefits from being non-toxic and environmentally low risk;
accidental spills cannot poison water, it will not sink into the water
table and it will not be absorbed by the soil. Another clear advantage
over diesel or other marine fuels DME isn’t poisonous to aquatic life.
If it was used over diesel, the fallout from the disastrous 2014
Galveston Bay spill and the poisonous 2015 Longueuil spill would have
been greatly reduced.
Due to its high cetane number, DME can be used in compression ignition
engines which are more energy efficient and powerful than spark-ignition
engine vehicles. Along with CNG and LNG, DME used in a heavy-duty
natural gas engine would produce drastically lower NOx and particulate
emission levels than diesel.
However, while neither LNG nor CNG can be used in a compression engine,
DME can, as well as spark ignition, diesel, turbine and fuel cell
engines. Compressed natural gas is relatively common at gas fueling
stations, where it is compressed on site, but liquefied natural gas is
less widely available. LNG is mostly used by fleets that have the
dedicated infrastructure in place, with only several large-scale
liquefaction plants manufacturing LNG fuel for transportation
nationwide. This LNG requires custom-built, truck-hauled tankers to be
delivered.
What is preventing compression ignition engines from being more widely
used are the problems in reducing the levels of NOx and particulate
matter to levels acceptable to public health bodies worldwide. These
standards are ever tightening as more studies are published on the
harmful nature of these substances. The difficulties in emission
reduction do not exist in the case of DME, in fact, DME and propane can
fuel all engine sizes, from lawn mowers to the largest container ships.
“DME engines run cleaner and produce low levels of NOx Emissions and
Particulate Matter.”
Dimethyl ether combustion generates essentially no particulate matter
(PM) because of the absence of C-C bonds and sulfur compounds, and so
does not form soot after combustion. This brings it under the category
of particulate free fuels which also includes hydrogen, methanol and
some carbonates.
Moreover, reduced NOx emissions can be achieved using much less
complicated or even without tailpipe emission control technologies.
These pollution control advantages would allow a transition to
fuel-efficient vehicles such as compression ignition engine/hybrid
electric vehicles. The issues surrounding wholesale and retail can be
solved simultaneously as DME gas is stored in mildly pressurized
canisters such as those required for propane above -25 °C. Simply put,
DME and propane can use the same storage, transportation and transfer
technology globally.
Dimethyl Ether for Generators
The diesel genset is one of the cheapest and most reliable distributed
power technologies available today. It has expanded opportunities among
homeowners and commercial facilities including: hospitals, water
treatment plants and data centers that require mission-critical power in
the event of a grid outage. Navigant Research recently commissioned a
report on worldwide revenue from diesel gensets, and it is expected to
reach $41.2 Billion by 2018. The report also determined that global
installed base of gensets will have an annual power sales of 82 GWe,
equivalent to the production of 22% of the world’s nuclear reactor capacity.
As countries such Nigeria, India, Chile, and South Africa continue to
experience strong economic and population growth, existing
infrastructure can’t keep up with the pace and blackouts are common:
this drives up diesel genset sales. The scale and length of these
blackouts mean industries in India, for example, have become highly
dependent on diesel as power outages can span up to 16 hours per day,
making them more vulnerable to fuel price volatility and supply.
The demand for new generator sets for any particular region is based on
numerous factors, including the electrification ratio of the particular
region, emission regulations, economic growth and grid reliability.
As the market grows, competition is only increasing as participants
worldwide try to seize a larger share of the global diesel genset market.
The demand for diesel genset will only mount as rising population,
increasingly unreliable grid infrastructure and continuous investments
in infrastructure-related projects continue to be a factor over the next
5 years. Governments are also enacting more stringent emission
regulations in response to concerns over the environment, which will
require end users to come up with more environmentally friendly
solutions to meet Tier 4, MARPOL VI and Euro 6 regulations.
Sales of alternative fuel gensets totaled just over $800 million in
2013, making up approximately 2.4% of total market sales. These are
projected to experience high growth (a CAGR of 8.2%) over the next five
years. Examples of alternative fuels include solid waste landfill gas,
agricultural waste biogas, flare gas from oil drilling, seam gas from
mining coal deposits, dimethyl ether and biodiesel. In places where the
supply of diesel or natural gas is limited, alternative fuel generator
sets offer added value. In other instances, alternative fuel synthesized
from existing waste gas sources and used with a genset to produce
electricity can dramatically lower the total energy costs of the end user.
Over the next decade, the increase in atypical gas resources and more
stringent emissions regulations for stationary generators will favor
clean-burning dimethyl ether and other clean fuels systems over their
traditional diesel counterparts in North and South America. Moreover,
virtual power plants can leverage distributed generation unit supplied
with easy to store dimethyl ether, by utilizing distributed energy
resources via software systems.
In particular, the drive to integrate variable generation resources,
especially wind and solar into the grid, is resulting in viable virtual
power plants, microgrids and island grids that will see impressive
growth over the next several years and be worth $3.6 Billion in 2020
compared with $1 Billion now. The growth in distributed, renewable power
generation sources requires additional supply and demand flexibility to
accommodate fast ramping periods and corresponding supply forecast
error. Virtual power plants and microgrids represent an ideal
optimization platform for the evolving transformation of the power grid.
Dimethyl ether powered gensets will be the cornerstone technology for
future clean microgrids.
Dimethyl Ether for Transportation
After decades of investment in DME engine technology Volvo will
introduce it to selected markets in North America during early 2018.
Their modified 13 Liter Volvo/Mack (VNL 300 DME) diesel engines run on
DME at higher compression ratios and make less noise than conventional
engines. Running on DME the trucks will eliminate emission of
particulate matter, reduce vibration and minimize nitrous oxides
generated by conventional diesel engines. As well as this, the engines
can be more efficient, have better wheel-to-wheel costs and reduced
emissions when compared to conventional diesels. The fuel costs will
also be lower as DME is not derived from oil, but from natural gas, coal
or biomass via a constantly improving process.
For marine applications, MAN Diesel & Turbine has developed DME engines.
The ME-LGI concept is an entirely new system that can be applied to all
MAN Diesel & Turbo low-speed engines, either ordered as an original unit
or through retrofitting. With two new injection concepts, the ME-LGI
concept greatly expands the company’s multi-fuel portfolio and enables
the utilization of more low-flash-point fuels such as DME and propane.
The ME-LGI came about due to a desire from shipping interests to operate
on alternatives to heavy fuel oil (HFO) and diesel. Propane carriers
have already operated at sea for many years and many more propane
tankers are currently being built as the global propane infrastructure
grows. As the transportation mechanism is similar, the same ship can
carry propane and DME. With a viable, convenient and comparatively cheap
fuel already onboard, it makes sense to use a fraction of the cargo to
power the vessel with a crucial side-benefit of being better for the
environment. MAN Diesel & Turbo states that it is already working
towards a Tier-III-compatible ME-LGI version, which can easily run on DME.
Alternative Markets for DME as a Propane Substitute
Dimethyl ether can also be blended into the propane supply on a 20/80
basis without any detriment on end users. The Eastern Seaboard currently
has the highest prices for propane, at well above 4.30 $/gallon. In
particular, propane distributors can use their infrastructure to
transport and store dimethyl ether for delivery to “behind the fence”
fueling stations at each truck fleet. As opposed to CNG and LNG, the
global propane infrastructure is robust, inexpensive and extensive.
Propane has 1.22 times the energy density than DME on a volume basis, so
3.52 $/gallon of DME is energy equivalent to 4.30 $/gallon of propane.
China Leads the Way
The market for DME markets is growing rapidly in other parts of the
world year over year and is expected to accelerate significantly in the
future. Countries like South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Sweden, Egypt and
Trinidad & Tobago have their own strategies to develop the DME by
producing it domestically or by sourcing it from other countries.
Production facilities are currently concentrated in China, with smaller
capacity in Japan, Korea and Germany. The Netherlands, the U.S.A. and
Canada have no major DME facilities, although production may come from
recent methanol re-starts.
China has the largest capacity for methanol and dimethyl ether with
6,500,000 t/y (tonnes per year), or about 85% of worldwide production: a
result of large investment since 2006. Dehydration of methanol, produced
mainly from coal, is used for DME production. Interest in
Methanol-to-Gasoline (MTG) has been observed in China, but with slower
progress. Shortly, China will be capable of producing over 10 MM t/y.
Recently, three integrated, coal-based methanol to olefin (MTO) projects
in China have been commissioned. Also after some delays, one other
non-integrated MTO project has been launched. This non-integrated plant
is relatively small for MTO, while a significant number of future MTO
plants are “still on the drawing board”. For example, Shenhua Ningxia
has a methanol capacity 1,670,000 t/y with a large fraction earmarked
for DME production. Shenhua Baotou produces 1,800,000 t/y of methanol
combined with ethylene/propylene production. The enormous Chinese
coal-to-chemicals sector remains industrial user focused, but support
for “high value” applications, like DME production focuses on Chinese
fuel self- sufficiency objectives.
To reduce its 2.5 PM particulate pollution, Shanghai will test the use
of DME fuel in heavy trucks and gradually expand it to buses and taxis.
The Shanghai Economic and Information Technology Commission stated that
DME will be tested by 50 or so taxis in Minhang District and a few local
bus lines. Chinese markets are quoting a price of 3,000 yuan (US
$482.10) a short ton, currently cheaper than locally distributed diesel.
In a move based on simplicity, the Chinese trucking industry will bypass
particulate filters, selective catalytic reduction and complex exhaust
gas recirculation, by moving straight to simple DME engines to lower
emissions.
The Best Fuel, Period
Abstract From Report 10: Department of Shipping and Marine Technology,
Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden by Selma Brynolf,
Shweta Kuvalekar and Karin Andersson:
The combined effort of reducing the emissions of sulphur dioxide,
nitrogen oxides and greenhouse gases to comply with future regulations
and reduce impact on climate change will require a significant change in
ship propulsion. One alternative is to change fuels. In this study the
environmental performance of two potential future marine fuels, methanol
and dimethyl ether (DME), are evaluated and compared to present and
possible future marine fuels.
Methanol and DME produced from natural gas was shown to be associated
with a larger energy use and slightly more emissions of greenhouse gases
in the life cycle when compared to HFO, MGO and LNG. Use of methanol and
DME results in significantly lower impact when considering the impact
categories particulate matter, photochemical ozone formation,
acidification and eutrophication compared to HFO and MGO without any
exhaust abatement technologies and of the same order of magnitude as for
LNG.
Methanol and DME produced from willow or forest residues have the lowest
life cycle global warming potential (GWP) of all fuels compared in this
study and could contribute to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases
from shipping significantly.
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http://www.praxair.com/-/media/documents/sds/dimethyl-ether-c2h6o-safety-data-sheet-sds-p4589.pdf?la=en
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyl_ether
Dimethyl ether (DME), also known as methoxymethane, is the organic
compound with the formula CH3OCH3, simplified to C2H6O. The simplest
ether, it is a colorless gas that is a useful precursor to other organic
compounds and an aerosol propellant that is currently being demonstrated
for use in a variety of fuel applications. It is an isomer of ethanol.
...
A potentially major use of dimethyl ether is as substitute for propane
in LPG used as fuel in household and industry.[12]
It is also a promising fuel in diesel engines,[13] and gas turbines. For
diesel engines, an advantage is the high cetane number of 55, compared
to that of diesel fuel from petroleum, which is 40–53.[14] Only moderate
modifications are needed to convert a diesel engine to burn dimethyl
ether. The simplicity of this short carbon chain compound leads during
combustion to very low emissions of particulate matter. For these
reasons as well as being sulfur-free, dimethyl ether meets even the most
stringent emission regulations in Europe (EURO5), U.S. (U.S. 2010), and
Japan (2009 Japan).[15]
Dimethyl ether is being developed as a synthetic second generation
biofuel (BioDME), which can be manufactured from lignocellulosic
biomass.[16] Currently the EU is considering BioDME in its potential
biofuel mix in 2030;[17] the Volvo Group is the coordinator for the
European Community Seventh Framework Programme project BioDME[18][19]
where Chemrec's BioDME pilot plant based on black liquor gasification is
nearing completion in Piteå, Sweden.[20]
At the European Shell Eco Marathon, an unofficial World Championship for
mileage, vehicle running on 100% dimethyl ether drove 589 km/liter, fuel
equivalent to gasoline with a 50 cc 2-stroke engine. As well as winning
they beat the old standing record of 306 km/liter, set by the same team
in 2007.[21]
