The 40 Hottest Technologies of 2018 – as voting gets underway, the nominees in depth
Synthetic High-Octane Gasoline from Dimethyl Ether
What does it do, how does it work, who is it aimed at?
NREL’s Low-Severity Process Offers Higher Fuel Yields and Produces a Higher Quality Product than Existing Methanol-to-Gasoline Technologies. To address one of the major challenges associated with the development of cost-competitive biofuels: high conversion costs to generate high-quality fuels, NREL has developed a proprietary catalyst that can convert dimethyl ether and H2 into a mixture of branched C5-C8 paraffins and olefins. The process operates at mild conditions, 1-10atm and 175-225°C, in a fixed-bed reactor, and the branched nature of the resulting hydrocarbons provides a high octane rating for the finished fuel blendstock. Specifically, one of the major branched paraffinic products from this process, 2,2,3-trimethylbutane, has a RON of 112, and finished fuel blendstocks generated to-date from this process have exhibited RON values greater than 105. This fuel blendstock can be used to phase out lead from aviation gasoline (the motor octane number has been measured at 97), provide higher-octane gasoline at the pump to improve vehicle fuel efficiency, and propel race cars around the track.
Competitively, what gives this technology an edge?
NREL’s synthetic high-octane gasoline process operates under lower severity conditions than traditional methanol-to-fuels processes, offering a lower coke formation rate, higher selectivity to gasoline-range hydrocarbons, and lower fuel production costs.The differentiators:
1. Proprietary catalyst improves productivity by 300%, reduces aromatic selectivity by 70%, extends lifetime, and re-incorporates C4 by-product as compared to the commercial catalyst
2. Hydrocarbon product provides octane boost without a blend wall
3. Higher octane fuel than existing refinery streams with low vapor pressure and no sulfur
4. Minimal aromatics content, resulting in no toxicity concerns and reduced particulate emissions
5. Feedstock agnostic: dimethyl ether can be generated from any carbon source using established technologies
6. Technology demonstrated at pilot scale
7. Greater than 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to petroleum-sourced fuels when starting with biomass
What stage of development is this technology at right now?
Contact for licensing information.
Category: Top Stories
