Dimethyl Ether (DME) Fuelled Vehicle [UPSC Notes]

India’s first 100 per cent dimethyl ether (DME) fuelled Tractor for on- and off-road applications has ushered in a new era for sustainable alternative-fuel transport systems. In this article, you can learn more about DME-fuelled engines and the advantages they offer vis-a-vis traditional fuel. This topic is relevant for the IAS exam environment and ecology segment of GS paper III.

Dimethyl Ether (DME) Fuelled Vehicles

• Dimethyl ether (DME) is a renewable fuel and can be produced either by dehydration of methanol or from syngas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen). 
• Application of DME in internal combustion engines was so far not feasible in India but several countries like Japan, the US, China, Sweden, Denmark, and Korea are already using it to power their vehicles.
• The present DME-fuelled vehicle is a result of collaborative research between IIT-Kanpur and Chennai-based tractor manufacturer TAFE.
• The team led by Dr Avinash Kumar Aggarwal and Prof Tarun Gupta of IIT-Kanpur has developed a 100 per cent DME-fuelled engine with a mechanical fuel injection system. 
• DME possesses and exhibits a similar property to that of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and the use of DME can simultaneously reduce particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions.
• The newly innovated tractor is eco-friendly and cost-effective which exhibited higher thermal efficiency and lower emissions than the baseline diesel engine.
• The simplified engine technology is user-friendly and does not require expensive and hard-to-maintain emission control devices and is also compliant with stringent emission standards.
• The exhaust from the DME-powered tractor is smokeless, thereby preserving ambient air quality.
• DME-compatible materials were used in the fuel injection equipment (FIE) — fuel supply and return lines — developed by the IIT-Kanpur researchers.

DME-Fuelled Vehicles Advantages

• The newly innovated DME fuelled vehicle releases almost no smoke and extremely low particulate and soot emissions without the use of expensive after-treatment devices.
• Thus it is a viable alternative fuel and engine technology adaptable to the conventional diesel engines used in agricultural and transport sectors.
• DME can potentially reduce GHG emissions and huge import bills for India as it can be produced by converting vast domestic coal reserves, low-value agricultural biomass waste, and municipal solid waste into methanol and DME.

DEE as an Alternative

Scientists are suggesting diethyl ether (DEE) which is an isomer (or another form) of butanol as a better alternative to DME as DEE resembles mineral diesel and can be easily blended with diesel which in turn, would necessitate less tweaking of the existing engine. 

• DEE belongs to the category of ‘oxygenated fuels’ because of which it reduces carbon monoxide and soot emissions due to its shorter carbon chain and better ignition properties.
• More importantly, DEE is a renewable fuel if it is synthesised from ethanol, and is produced from low-value biomass feedstock through dehydration.
• However, DEE also has an issue of higher volatility which increases the chances of a ‘vapour lock’ in the fuel injection system.

Dimethyl Ether (DME) Fuelled Vehicle [UPSC Notes]:- Download PDF Here