AFTC remedies all the DME problems(highlighted).
Post# of 183
Dimethyl Ether is clean, liquefied, colourless gas produced by dehydration of methanol. Dimethyl Ether is also called as wood ether or methyl ether. It exhibit properties similar to liquid petroleum gas (LPG) or natural gas (NG), and hence can be used as an alternative for fire and transportation fuel . It is also used as propellant in consumer products which include domains such as household products, personal health care products (hairspray,foam shaving cream, antiperspirant, etc.), insect control and various other applications.
DME production as well as consumption has been dominated by China. Chemrec, a Sweden based company has stared a new bio-based DME manufacturing facility. DME has been emerged as a potential alternative traditional resources of fuels. DME is most predominantly used in diesel engine as an alternative fuel . Growing demand for energy across the world is expected to be the major growth engine for DME market. To reduce the dependence on increased consumption of natural resource DME being ecofriendly in nature can be intensively used by automobile industries. DME can also be used to solve environmental conservation problem.
Leading automobile industry giants such as Renault and Volvo have developed DME based fuel engine for buses. Major restraint of this market is developing process technologies being used. Due to lower viscocity and lubricity than diesel DME needs purpose built fuel injection systems . Hence very few vehicle test have being performed on DME based fuel engine. The durability and performance of DME fuel injection systems is major concern for the end users and is expected to be the major restraining force for DME market. Design of fuel injection system for DME is problematic due to problems created by chemical properties. Hence future work would include development of electronic fuel injection system for DME. One of the major hurdle for DME as transportation fuel is cost involved in investment and setup of distribution infrastructure.