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TOKYO -- DME Development Co., Ltd. will begin a government-subsidized project to develop direct synthesis technology for dimethyl ether (DME). The project will involve running a pilot plant that directly synthesizes 100 tons/day of DME from synthesis gas (carbon monoxide and hydrogen) manufactured from natural gas. On the basis of the test results, a feasibility study will be performed for a commercial DME plant with a capacity of 2,500 tons/day. The ultimate goal of the project is to establish direct synthesis technology for DME. DME Development Co. will design, fabricate, construct and perform commission tests on the pilot plant during 2002 and 2003, and will run the plant on an experimental basis from 2004 to 2006. The study plans five runs of continuous operation of the pilot plant for up to three months each run. This level of testing will enable the company to verify the technologies and obtain the data required for the design of a commercial plant. The plant will be constructed in Kushiro, Hokkaido, where NKK and others have already built a large bench plant capable of 5 tons/day of direct DME synthesis. DME Development Co. is a private research company established in December 2001 by a consortium of 9 firms: NKK Corporation; Nippon Sanso Corporation; Toyota Tsusho Corporation; Hitachi, Ltd.; Marubeni Corporation; Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.; INPEX Corporation; TotalFinaElf; and LNG Japan Corporation. Its goal is to commercialize direct DME synthesis technologies. DME is a clean fuel produced from a variety of hydrocarbon materials. It has very little environmental load because it generates absolutely no sulfur oxide or particulate matter during combustion. DME is also non-toxic and easy to handle, making it widely applicable in areas such as home fuels (as an alternative to LPG), transportation fuels (as an alternative to diesel automobile fuel and in fuel cells), power generation (in thermal power plants and fuel cells) and as a source of hydrogen energy. The direct synthesis technology allows effective use of the untapped reserves of low-grade coal and the smaller gas fields that are scattered throughout the Asian region. As a new form of energy with very little constraint on the resource side, DME offers a global-scale promise of energy security and low environmental load. There is a large, potential market forecast for DME in the Asian region, where populations are large and economic growth is sharp. Many look to it as the next generation of energy, and there is great hope riding on its commercialization. DME Development and its consortium partners seek to provide powerful impetus to the development of direct DME synthesis and production technologies and to bring DME to commercial levels as quickly as possible. Profile of DME Development Co., Ltd.
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