dauterman wrote:Hi,
I looked over you link and looked some things up on Dimethyl Ether (DME) and have the following concerns:
1. For every 1.0 Joules of wood biomass feedstock you put into the precess you get back anywhere from 0.49 to 0.63 Joules of DME. So you lose one third to one half of the energy of the biomass converting to DME. The biomass could just as easily have been burned for heat, electricity, etc. Burning wood biomass is much simpler/easier than DME conversion and you get the entire 1.0 joules out of it.
2. DME has a boiling point of -22 degrees C. In other words DME would boil off in an ordinary household freezer. It forms explosive mixtures with air. It has a flash point of -41 degrees C (i.e. exteremely flammable). See the MSDS of DME:
http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/DI/dimethyl_ether.html
And you're going to put this stuff in an internal combustion engine where some of the parts are well above room temperature? You're asking for a nifty fuel fire.
3. If inhaled or ingested it breaks down to methanol in the human body. This is highly toxic/poisonous. In animal experiments the LD50 (dose needed to kill half the test animals) is only 386 parts per million for 15 minutes. And the stuff is so volatile it boils off like mad. Everytime you go to fill up your tank you'd be poisoned by the fumes.
Just my 2 cents worth.
big_rc wrote:Why in the world would you think dimethyl ether is a viable replacement for oil? Dimethyl ether is not a naturally occuring substance and must be manufactured from fossil fuels. This fact in and of itself eliminates DME as a replacement for oil.
PS - Go to Wikipedia and do a quick search for DME.
Wikipedia wrote:Dimethyl ether is also a clean-burning alternative to liquified petroleum gas, liquified natural gas, diesel and gasoline. It can be made from natural gas, coal, or biomass.
Wikipedia wrote:Dimethyl ether is also a clean-burning alternative to liquified petroleum gas, liquified natural gas, diesel and gasoline. It can be made from natural gas, coal, or biomass.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 27 guests