During the 2009 World Methanol Conference in Miami, Richard LeBlanc, CEO of Chemrec, advocated for increased efforts to promote the use of dimethyl ether throughout North America as an alternative fuel.

DME can be used as a transportation fuel in diesel engines, gasoline engines, and gas turbines. It can be produced from a variety of abundant sources, including natural gas, coal, waste from pulp and paper mills, forest products, agricultural by-products, municipal waste and dedicated fuel crops such as switchgrass. Since DME is synthesized from methanol, LeBlanc noted that converting methanol into DME offers the methanol industry a new market for its product.

LeBlanc suggested the need for a collaborative effort among industry, end-users and government to bring DME to the forefront of alternative energy discussion in North America, particularly in the U.S. He said that DME is more widely produced and accepted in Europe and Asia.

"DME offers significant climate and energy security advantages to America, and because this clean, odorless and noncarcinogenic gas can be produced from a wide variety of feedstocks through a number of processes, it is a practical, proven alternative fuel that lacks only a higher awareness in the U.S. of its important role in America's energy independence," LeBlanc said.

Chemrec is currently building production plants in Sweden to produce BioDME, which is made through the Chemrec black liquor gasification technology, which uses residual forestry biomass as its feedstock.

"Other excellent applications for DME are as a low-carbon blend for natural gas and to fuel off-grid power generation such as standby diesel generators," LeBlanc said. "We expect that DME as an attractive diesel fuel substitute will continue to be refined and proven, while DME should be available in quantity in the U.S. in only a few years as Chemrec biofuel plants come on line."

Truck manufacturer Volvo AB, a partner in the Chemrec demonstration scale BioDME project, plans to test several of its production diesel trucks modified to operate on BioDME throughout Sweden.