Environment & Energy

International DME Association

It's pretty much a drop in fuel with few infrastructure changes required, with a high critical temperature making it easy to liquify, easily removed in a spill into water, with which it is miscible, exhibits very mild toxicology - it is something of a mild anesthetic - a short atmospheric half-life and, lacking a carbon-carbon bond, pretty much immune to the formation of particulates.

The idea has been around for quite some time, and is still be explored - Google Scholar shows close to 6,000 publications in 2023 alone - but to my amazement, has not been widely adopted.

The most important potential use, as a diesel fuel, would require a change of seals on existing trucks. Volvo/Mack built some trucks with this capability. Probably if truck manufacturers built new trucks with seals compatible with DME, a transition would be relatively simple.

I'm not sure about the seals on existing dangerous natural gas lines however, but in many places the fuel could be "drop in."

It is, however, an energy storage system, not primary energy, and the degree to which DME is "clean" is connected on whether or not the primary energy is nuclear. It can be, and has been, made by reforming coal or natural gas. In my view, this is unacceptable.