Block flow diagram of the Chemrec BLG Motor Fuel (BLGMF) process at its development plant (DP-3) site. The pulp mill line is to the left of the dotted red line; the BLGMF flow is to the right. Click to enlarge. Sweden-based Chemrec AB and Ohio-based NewPage Corporation have formed a... Read more →

At the 234th meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston this week, two different teams of researchers reported on their approaches for converting the waste from the paper industry into fuels. Researchers at Dartmouth are engineering xylose-fermenting microbes to simultaneously saccharify and co-ferment paper sludge to ethanol. Researchers at... Read more →

Synthesis Energy Systems, a coal gasification company, and Inner Mongolia Golden Concord (Xilinhot) Energy Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Golden Concord Holdings Ltd., a private provider of electricity, steam and chilling water in China, have signed a co-operative joint venture contract to build an integrated coal gasification plant and methanol... Read more →

Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc. (SES), a coal gasification company, and Yima Coal Industry Group Co., Ltd. (YIMA), a large Chinese integrated coal company, have signed a preliminary agreement to establish a joint venture company to build and operate a new integrated coal gasification to methanol to Dimethyl Ether (DME) plant.... Read more →

AB Volvo has made a SEK 7.5-billion (US$1.1-billion) public offer to acquire the Japanese truck manufacturer Nissan Diesel. Volvo already owns a 19% holding in Nissan Diesel and preference shares which can be converted to an additional 27.5%, after full dilution. Volvo’s offer for Nissan Diesel represents a premium of... Read more →

Nine major Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, Itochu, and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. (JPE), are establishing a joint venture company for the production of dimethyl ether (DME) for use as a synthetic, next-generation fuel. The joint venture, Fuel DME Production Co., will build a DME production plant within Mitsubishi... Read more →

Block flow diagram of a Chemrec Black Liquor Gasification with Motor Fuels (BLGMF) production concept. Click to enlarge. Volvo Technology Transfer AB is investing in Chemrec AB, a company that has developed a technology for gasification of black liquor, a residual product from the pulp industry. Volvo Technology Transfer AB... Read more →

Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co. Ltd. (SNCG) in China has awarded Siemens Power Generation (PG) a €30 million (US$39 million) contract for two entrained-flow gasifiers with a thermal capacity of 500 MW each and further key equipment for a coal gasification plant. SNCG is a subsidiary of the state-owned... Read more →

Chinese petrochemical company Lutianhua Group Inc. is planning to build a plant capable of producing 1 million tonnes of dimethyl ether (DME) per year in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The plant would be the world’s largest DME facility to date. Lutianhua Group has already signed a technology licensing agreement... Read more →

Xinhua. China will invest more than one trillion yuan (US$128 billion) to develop alternative coal-based synthetic fuels to ease the country’s dependence on oil imports, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The project aims to produce 30 million tons of liquefied coal and 20 million tons of... Read more →

Nissan Diesel and AB Volvo will jointly develop medium-duty trucks for worldwide sales. The joint effort expects to combine the Japanese truckmaker’s strength in smaller trucks with the Swedish expertise in manufacturing heavy-duty models. The companies will also conduct a joint study on advanced technologies such as hybrid engines, alternative... Read more →

Methanex and China’s XinAo Group have entered into a long-term arrangement under which Methanex will, beginning in late 2007, supply an initial quantity of approximately 300,000 tonnes per annum of methanol to XinAo. This methanol will be used in a new 200,000-tonne dimethyl ether (DME) production facility that XinAo is... Read more →

Another major use for crude oil aside from transportation fuels is as the feedstock for the production of olefins (alkenes). Olefins include ethylene and propylene, and are the primary building blocks for products such as polyethylene (LDPE, HDPE, LLDPE), polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), ethylene glycol, and SBR/PBR rubber. China is... Read more →

Xinhua. China is to begin construction of the largest dimethyl ether (DME) project yet with an annual output of 3 million tons. China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has banned any coal-based DME project with a design capacity lower than one million tons. The country’s current annual output is... Read more →

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, signed a financing package for China’s Xinao Group to support a coal-to-liquids project. IFC is investing in a Xinao subsidiary—Xinneng Chemical—by buying shares worth up to $10 million and granting a $40 million loan for the... Read more →

China’s first dimethyl ether bus, made by Shanghai Jiaotong University. Xinhua. The Chinese government will support the development of dimethyl ether (DME), a gas derived from coal, as a possible alternative to diesel. A circular from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said standards for the use of DME... Read more →

Volvo DME truck. The Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten) has awarded AB Volvo a 62.2-million kroner (US$8.4-million) grant to support the technical development of a third-generation DME engine for heavy vehicles during the period 2006-2010. The project’s goal is to deliver technology for a major field test with 30 third-generation DME-powered... Read more →

China’s first dimethyl ether bus, made by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Shanghai Daily. A Shanghai, China, chemical company has started producing dimethyl ether (DME) as an alternative fuel for transit buses in the city. Shanghai Coking & Chemical Corp, a unit of Shanghai Huayi Group, put its 5,000-tonne-per-year dimethyl ether... Read more →

AB Volvo acquired 40 million common shares, corresponding to 13%, in the Japanese truck manufacturer Nissan Diesel from Nissan Motor, with an option to acquire the remaining 6% of the shares from Nissan Motor within four years. The purchase price is approximately SEK billion 1.5 (US$195 million). The transaction strengthens... Read more →

Nissan Diesel’s DME demo truck. The Japan International Transport Institute and the National Traffic Safety and Environment Laboratory are hosting a half-day conference in Washington, DC, on the development and promotion of environmentally-friendly heavy-duty vehicles—with a specific emphasis on DME (dimethyl ether). Not well-known as a fuel alternative in the... Read more →

Biomass-derived fuels could meet 50% of Maine’s needs. The Fractionation Development Center (FDC), a Maine non-profit group, has released a plan detailing how the state could turn its vast quantities of forest waste into a range of biofuels and chemicals, providing up to 50% of the state’s annual energy needs.... Read more →

DME is a component of China’s vision for coal utilization. Japan’s Toyo Engineering will design and build China’s first major coal-to-dimethyl ether (DME) with China’s Ningxia Coal Group in northwestern China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. DME can serve as a synthetic fuel that is to diesel what LPG is to... Read more →

The DME-fueled generator JFE Engineering Corp., Daihatsu Diesel Mfg. and Iwatani International Corp. announced the development of a low-pollution generator system powered by a diesel engine that runs on dimethyl ether (DME)—the largest such engine to date powered by the synthetic fuel. (Topic.) DME is to diesel what LPG is... Read more →

SAIC at the Expo. Shanghai Automotive (SAIC) put on display at the 2005 Shanghai International Industrial Expo some of its accelerating R&D work in alternative and efficient vehicles, including a prototype of the hybrid Touran under development with its partner Volkswagen. (Earlier post.) . Exhibits included alternative fuel engines (dimethyl... Read more →

AFP. French oil company Total is working with a consortium of nine Japanese companies on a $250-million dimethyl ether (DME) pilot project with a goal of volume production by 2010. DME is an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas)-like synthetic fuel that is produced through gasification of various renewable substances or fossil... Read more →

The Volvo Group has unveiled its first truck equipped with a DME (dimethyl ether) engine. This represents Volvo’s second-generation heavy-duty DME vehicle. Volvo Truck Corporation and Volvo Bus Corporation built an earlier (1996–1998) prototype DME bus for testing and demonstration of the low-emissions and high-efficiency capabilities of the fuel. The... Read more →

AFX. The Rockefeller family is taking a $100 million stake (31%) in China’s Shandong Jiutai Chemical Co, and teaming up on the construction of a $677-million (5.6 bln yuan) dimethyl ether (DME) production facility. DME is a clean-burning, synthetic substitute for diesel. (Earlier post.) The new project, with an annual... Read more →

Oil Search, Papua New Guinea’s biggest oil and gas producer, has signed a deal with Mitsubishi Gas Chemical and Itochu Corp to begin preparing a $US500 million ($640 million) plant to supply dimethyl ether—a clean-burning synthetic substitute for diesel—to Japan. (Earlier post on DME here.) The planned plant, near Port... Read more →

Shanghai Daily. Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University are developing a city transit bus that uses dimethyl ether (DME) as a fuel. DME is a clean-burning (completely sootless) synthetic fuel that can substitute for conventional diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or be reformed into hydrogen for fuel cells. As a... Read more →

Russia holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves: 47 trillion cubic meters (Tcm)—more than twice the reserves in the next largest country, Iran. (EIA) Unlike Russia’s oil industry, the gas industry is not booming. Growth of Russia’s natural gas sector has been stunted primarily due to ageing fields, state regulation,... Read more →

Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (AIST) and eight private companies have applied for a permit to test mid- and large-size trucks using Dimethyl Ether (DME) fuel, a clean burning synthetic fuel that can substitute for conventional diesel, liquified petroleum gas (LPG) or be reformed into hydrogen for... Read more →

Zagros Petrochemical, a subsidiary of the Iranian National Oil Company, is building a new DME (Dimethyl Ether) plant with a capacity of 800,000 metric Tons Per Year (MTPY) of DME at Bandar Assaluyeh, Iran. Zagros is using technology and catalysts developed by Haldor Topsøe A/S of Denmark in collaboration with... Read more →

Hydrogen receives a lot of airtime as the annointed energy carrier of the future, but there are other possibilities that could go into our future energy mix—one of them being Dimethyl Ether (DME). DME is a clean burning (completely sootless) synthetic fuel that can substitute for conventional diesel, liquified petroleum... Read more →