At Kushiro on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, a factory is serving as a testbed for the production of the "clean" gas dimethylether, or DME.

When it is at normal temperature and pressure, DME could pass for water, but vaporizes quickly. Spread on the ground, it evaporates within seconds. But when it is set alight, the flame is blue and it becomes a gas -- one which emits no sulphur oxides.

Among the advantages -- it is produced through renewable resources or fossil fuels, it releases little greenhouse gas and is easily transportable as a liquid. Questions, however, remain about its profitability.

"When you produce DME, there is a lot less carbon dioxide, or other kinds of waste. And when you use it, there are no more carbon dioxide emissions than with LNG (liquefied natural gas) and a lot less than with coal," said Hubert de Mestier, Total's Northeast Asia chief representative.

"It could in time replace diesel and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). It doesn't need a catalytic exhaust pipe and is probably cheaper than conventional fuels," said de Mestier.

DME is non-toxic but highly inflammable. In addition to natural gas, it can be produced from a base of industrial waste or oil residue.

It can be put to diverse use, serving as home cooking gas, a propellant for spray cans or powering small to medium sized power plants and automobiles.

DME can also work as a substitute for diesel, with experiments already conducted to set up a DME-electric hybrid car.

"We are able to have at once a fuel that is very clean and emits little green house gas," Total chief executive Thierry Desmarest told AFP at a recent sustainable development forum in Tokyo.

"It's a good solution both environmentally and in terms of resources as the world's resources of gas are greater than those of oil," he said.

DME came about because of the particular circumstances of Japan.

"In Japan, for many years, steel factories were confronted with the question: What do you do with the gas coming out of blast-furnaces?" explained Osamu Inokoshi, director general of the DME project at JFE Holdings, Japan's second largest steelmaker.

"Instead of throwing away the emissions, you could save them. That's why we tried to come up with a technology to save the gas," he said.

The discovery of DME came by chance in the course of research by NKK Corp., which became part of JFE Holdings through a 2002 merger with Kawasaki Steel. Studies began in 1989 at the University of Tokyo.

The first pilot project to produce five tonnes of DME a day was launched in 1997 in Kushiro with the help of subsidies from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

In October 2001, Total participited to an alliance with a consortium of eight Japanese companies -- JFE Holdings, Idemitsu Kosan, Nippon Sanso, Toyota Tsusho, LNG Japan, Hitachi, Marubeni and Inpex. Japex (a daughter company of former Japan National Oil Corporation) has since joined up.

Total, a large supplier of LNG to Japan, has lent to the project its expertise in oil and gas, petrochemicals and refining.

The project is costing about 250 million dollars over five years. METI is forking up 65 percent of the cost, with the partners sharing the rest. The ministry has also provided separate subsidies to develop particular parts of the project such as turbines and engines.

In December 2003, a new production pilot was launched in Kushiro aiming to make 100 tonnes of DME a day.

Up to mid-December 2004, some 150 days of tests were carried out producing nearly 8,000 tonnes of DME.

A fourth test of longer duration is expected in 2005, with all the trials to be completed by the end of 2006.

"After that, we want to move towards industrial production. We don't intend to do this in France or in Japan but in a country where there is gas, probably in the Middle East," Total CEO Desmarest said.

Total's first ambition is to build a commercial factory that can produce 6,000 tonnes a day, expected to be in Qatar, by 2010. A minimum of 3,000 to 6,000 tonnes a day must be produced to make DME profitable.

"The liquefication of natural gas is an extremely capital-intensive activity which can only be justified for major fields," Desmarest stressed.

"One of the issues of the cooperation between Total and its Japanese partners is how to free itself from this size constraint to get liquid hydrocarbons from smaller gasfields," he said.

Related Links
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express