Ford project could make DME fuels mainstream
Ford of Europe is heading a €3.5 million research project into the use of alternative fuels for road vehicles, concentrating on dimethyl ether (DME) and oxymethylene ether (OME1).
Volvo Group has already demonstrated DME fuel in Europe and has pre-production DME-powered heavy-duty trucks running in commercial operations in North America. The adaptation of DME as a road fuel by a major automotive manufacturer would ease the production and distribution infrastructure issues that have hitherto stifled its introduction as a fuel for trucks and buses.
Ford’s project has attracted co-funding from the German government. Running for three years, it will test the first-ever passenger cars to run on DME and OME1, with hoped-for benefits including low particulate emissions and enhanced fuel efficiency.
Ford said the fuels could be generated from fossil natural gas or bio-gas or through a sophisticated process called power-to-liquid that uses renewable sources such as solar or wind power together with CO2 captured from the air.
Volvo manufactured its DME from so-called ‘black liquor’ – a waste byproduct from wood processing in the forestry industry.
This technology is being investigated in a parallel project together with RWTH Aachen University researching the viability of different DME generation methods, looking at conversion efficiency, estimated fuel prices and infrastructure aspects.
“The CO2 produced by a car powered by DME from renewable sources could be comparable to the amount generated by a marathon runner covering the same distance – but with performance similar to a diesel-powered vehicle,” said Werner Willems, technical specialist, Powertrain Combustion Systems, Ford of Europe.
“This is a project that could help place vehicles with a significantly reduced carbon dioxide and particulate emissions on the market at affordable costs.”
Both DME and OME1 produce almost no particulates, and also share characteristics with diesel fuel that are expected to make conversion of diesel engines possible with comparable performance.
For the project Ford European Research & Innovation Center, Aachen, Germany, will work together with RWTH Aachen University, the Technical University of Munich, FVV, TUEV, DENSO, IAV Automotive Engineering, and Oberon Fuels. Oberon is Volvo’s fuel supplier for its North American project.
