Dimethyl ether (DME)
It fuels your Auqanet can, jump starts the healing on the wart on your hand. And, now advocates for the product claim it’s great for fueling fleet vehicles. Really?
It’s called dimethyl ether or DME. It’s a chemical that’s been used for decades here in the U.S. to make aerosol cans spray and as an active ingredient in wart treatment. Now, members of the International DME Association (IDA) say the chemical would make for cheap vehicle fuel if Congress enacted legislation that charges drivers for carbon emissions.
“That’s going to drive up the demand for products like ours, but the thing that we like about DME is that it’s a good fuel to use right now without that,” said Rick LeBlanc, director of IDA’s North American Affairs Committee. “We can make it now on a competitive basis without the limits and subsidies that everybody expects to come in the future. When a carbon price comes, that just makes it an even better business case.”
I have a better idea… let’s not waste resources to create them. . .
The key words there are: We can make it. Yes, you have to make DME. Like a lot of alternative fuels – ethanol, which is made from corn, or biodiesel which is made from vegetable fat– DME is made from something else, primarily coal, natural gas or wood waste.
Internationally, DME is used quite a bit. China is one of the main users of the fuel. Many rural Chinese homeowners use the fuel for heating and cooking. And soon, 10 DME-powered buses will be hitting the streets in Shanghai.
The DME Association is touting the environmental benefits of the fuel – that it emits 8 percent less greenhouse gases than diesel, 24 percent less than gasoline. And, that it has nearly zero particulate emissions. Good. But, it also has a lower energy density and drivers would need to hit a filling station about twice as often. Bummer.
I have a better idea… let’s not waste resources to create them. Why use up natural gas or coal to create DME and then use DME to fuel our fleet cars, heat our homes and cook our food? Let’s use natural gas - which doesn’t need to be made into something else – to fuel our fleets, heat our homes and cook our food.
Natural gas is actually cleaner than DME anyway. It has 25 percent less carbon dioxide emissions than traditional fuels, as much as 60 percent less carbon monoxide emissions. Natural gas is abundant and affordable. And, it would be cheaper under a carbon tax than DME.
If we are going to strive toward a reasonable energy mix that will provide for America’s future, we must do it in a smart way. We have to stop wasting the resources we have to achieve resources that don’t necessarily put us on a better path.