Nissan, Isuzu, and Weichai—an engine manufacturer in China—are “going in big time (on DME), and it’s not just trucks. They’re putting DME engines in bulldozers, city buses, taxi cabs, and cars. (Weichai is) betting the farm on it. There’s 100 years of natural gas in Mongolia and they’re building mega-refineries. They want to be energy-independent. They don’t want to have their oil crews in Nigeria. This is an avenue.”
DME produced from methanol has a price that is a function of the cost of methanol and LP-gas. DME’s energy value is 62% of LPG, and the listed sale price is typically 75% to 90% of LPG.