Amid concerns over cooking gas supplies due to the ongoing conflict in West Asia, scientists at the National Chemical Laboratory are working to expand a pilot plant to produce dimethyl ether (DME), which could serve as a domestic alternative to Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
Researchers said DME can be used in existing LPG systems without requiring any changes to cylinders, regulators, hoses, gaskets or burners. It can also be used fully in specially designed stoves.
LPG, the most widely used cooking fuel in India, has recently seen supply disruptions and rising prices due to tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran in West Asia, which have affected global fuel supply chains.
DME is a synthetic fuel produced from methanol, which can be derived from dry biomass, coal and captured carbon dioxide. Scientists say its properties are similar to LPG, allowing it to be blended with LPG in different proportions. The Bureau of Indian Standards has already set standards for blending DME with LPG for domestic, commercial and industrial use.
Ashish Lele, director of the National Chemical Laboratory, said replacing part of LPG with DME could help reduce IndiaтАЩs dependence on imported cooking gas and save foreign exchange.
According to Thirumalaiswamy Raja, chief scientist in the Catalysis Division at NCL, India could use its coal reserves and agricultural residues to produce methanol through gasification and convert it into DME, creating a new domestic fuel source.
Scientists said earlier efforts to develop this technology were slowed by the lack of suitable catalysts. Some countries, including China and several European nations, had not shared their catalyst technology with India.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the National Chemical Laboratory have now developed a patented process that uses an indigenous catalyst to efficiently convert methanol into DME.
Researchers have also developed a burner prototype capable of operating on LPG, DME or a blend of both. The device has been tested at the LPG Equipment Research Centre in Bengaluru.
Lele said the laboratory is now preparing to scale up the technology to an industrial demonstration plant in collaboration with engineering partners, which could eventually pave the way for commercial production of DME in India.
