New, improved catalyst for methanol production

Researchers are continuing to work at devising new and better ways to efficiently produce low-carbon methanol from hydrogen and carbon dioxide.  New findings outlined in the journal Nature Chemistry are most encouraging. Researchers from the US and Denmark have shown that a new nickel-gallium catalyst appears to generate fewer side-products than conventional catalysts and be relatively stable. What’s more, it’s cheaper. Click here to read more.

Approval of an ASTM specification for DME

The American Society for Testing and Materials International has issued a standard specification for DME (dimethyl ether), a promising transportation fuel because of its many significant benefits:

• Ultra-low exhaust emissions
• No particulate matter (PM); very low NOx; no Sox)
• Low engine noise
• High fuel economy
• High well-to-wheel efficiency
• Engine thermal efficiency equal to or better than diesel fuel

DME can be used in diesel engines without engine modification, but with minor modifications to the fuel supply and lubrications. In 2013 both Volvo and Mack Trucks announced that, after conducting exhaustive field studies, they would be begin producing DME-powered trucks for sale in the US.

ASTM D7901 covers DME for use as a fuel in engines specifically designed or modified for DME, and for blending with liquefied petroleum gas. “Approval of an ASTM specification for DME marks an important milestone for DME’s introduction as a fuel, providing DME producers, engine manufacturers, infrastructure developers and others involved in the introduction of DME as a fuel with an important benchmark on which to base their work,” said the International DME Association.

Truck fitted with a DME tank

Truck fitted with a DME tank

Israel ramping up use of methanol as a transportation fuel

An executive of Israel’s Dor Chemicals recently announced that the company plans to double methanol imports within two years to meet an expected demand surge for blended gasoline. For proponents of methanol as a transportation fuel, this is not surprising as Israel’s testing of fuel methanol has been generating positive results. Israel is thus poised to join China as a world leader in the use of methanol as a transportation fuel. Click here to read the full story.

Methanex invests in Carbon Recycling International — and renewable methanol

On July 30, 2013 Methanex and Carbon Recycling International issued a press release announcing a “landmark” investment agreement in the production of renewable methanol. Bravo, we say. Having the world’s largest supplier of methanol to markets in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America invest in renewable methanol validates Blue Fuel Energy’s perspectives on this emerging fuel.  Click here to read the press release.

 

 

Carbon Recycling International plant in Iceland

Carbon Recycling International plant in Iceland

 

Methanex logoCarbon Recycling International logo

 

MAN developing methanol engines for Methanex ships

UnknownMomentum for the use of methanol as a transportation fuel continues to build with the July 1, 2013 announcement by MAN Diesel & Turbo that it is developing a new ME-LGI dual fuel engine for Waterfront Shipping, which is wholly owned by the world’s largest methanol producer, Methanex. The engines will run on a blend of 95% methanol and 5% diesel. Should methanol-based marine fuels deliver the anticipated emissions and fuel cost reductions, it could usher in a new era in shipping and bolster demand for methanol around the world.

Volvo and Mack to produce DME trucks in North America

Although the focus of this blog is methanol as a transportation fuel, given that DME (dimethyl ether) is a methanol derivative that Blue Fuel Energy has the option of producing, when there’s a significant development in the use of DME as a transportation fuel, we are compelled to highlight it.  And indeed there has been a profound advance in the DME world: Volvo Trucks announced on June 6 that in 2015 it will commence the production of DME-fueled trucks for the North American market. Volvo appears to have concluded that their extensive field testing demonstrates that there are no technical reasons why DME cannot be used as an alternative to diesel in compression ignition engines. Amazingly, two weeks later on June 20, Mack Trucks issued a similar announcement, saying that in 2015 it too will begin commercial production of DME trucks in North America.

 

volvo-trucks-to-run-on-dme-in-north-america-by-2015-61091-7

Volvo truck with its top-selling D13 engine modified to burn DME

 

These announcements by Volvo and Mack bring us to Oberon Fuels. On June 6 Oberon announced that its small-scale bio-DME fuel production units will soon go online in California, and that the DME produced with by used in Volvo trucks being used by Safeway to transport product. As Rebecca Boudreaux, president of Oberon Fuels, notes, “With these small-scale production units, regional fuel markets are created, offering the potential to bypass the infrastructure challenges of using an alternative fuel while also enabling the use of locally available feedstocks.”

Volvo’s June 6 announcement, however, clearly states that Volvo is not relying solely on Oberon bio-DME to power future fleets of DME trucks:

It (DME) can be made from a variety of sustainable domestic sources, as well as from North America’s abundant supply of natural gas, and therefore has the potential to significantly reduce energy dependency.  Converting natural gas to DME is an innovative way to address many of the distribution, storage and fueling challenges otherwise presented by natural gas as a heavy truck fuel.

Using natural gas as a feedstock certainly allows DME to produced on a very large scale — and there is currently no shortage of natural gas in North America that could be converted to methanol and then DME. And though the carbon footprint of natural gas-based DME  exceeds that of bio-DME or Blue Fuel DME, there are still many compelling reasons for rolling out the natural gas to methanol/DME pathway, along which Canadian Methanol is embarking.

 

 

 

 

 

Methanol as a fuel cell fuel

As a recent article in FuelCellToday notes, there have been several new, positive developments regarding the use of  methanol as a fuel. These include Ballard Power Systems shipping out 500 methanol-fuelled telecom backup power systems, SFC Energy launching new versions of its portable generators for industrial applications, Oorja Protonics signing up new customers for its DMFC ranger-extender technology for materials handling vehicles and, perhaps most notably, Serenergy readiness to sell fuel range extenders for small electric vehicles. In toto, these developments speak volumes about the broadening base for the use of methanol as a fuel cell fuel.

Regulations for the use of methanol as a marine fuel

Det Norske Veritas (DNV) is a classification society dating back to 1864 with the purpose of “safeguarding life, property, and the environment”. DNK  describes its core competence as identifying, assessing, and advising on how to manage risk, and today it has 300 offices in some 100 countries. According to an article in Port News, by this summer( 2013) will have developed regulations for the use of methanol as a marine fuel. This, it would appear, is closely connected with the SPIRITH project in the Baltic Sea discussed in the previous blog post and reflects DNV’s views that methanol is poised to become a viable alternative marine fuel.

Methanol as a marine fuel

The Baltic Sea is part of a designated Sulphur Emission Control Area where the maximum allowable sulphur content in marine fuels will be reduced to 0.1% in 2015. To help meet these requirements, as well as for other environmental reasons, in 2012  several companies and governmental agencies partnered to form SPIRETH, a full-scale pilot project for testing the application of methanol and DME as sulphur-free marine fuels.The project is expected to be completed in March 2014, less than one year from now. Should project results be positive, as expected, another driver of the fuel methanol market is likely to emerge, broadening the base for methanol producers around the world.