XTL & DME Institute
Blog
Copyright 2023 XTL & DME Institute
©
Renewable DME as a Propane Blend Stock: Latest Developments in U.S.
Posted on 12/22/2020; by Ron Sills
Suburban Propane, the third largest retail distributor of propane in the U.S., purchased a 39% stake in Oberon Fuels, in September, and committed to additional investments to support ongoing development of innovative solutions to reduce carbon emissions. Oberon Fuels and Suburban Propane, in collaboration with SHV Energy, U-Haul and Roush CleanTech, are progressing activities to produce renewable DME (rDME) and demonstrate its use as a propane blend stock for autogas. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) amended California’s low carbon fuel standard requiring a 20% reduction in carbon intensity (CI) of the state’s fuel supply by 2030. CARB states that a 5% blend of rDME, when produced from biogas decreases propane’s baseline carbon intensity value from 83 to 65. With a 20% blend, the CI value decreases to just 11; thereby approaching carbon neutrality. This effort was inspired by the pioneering work by Amoco in the 1990s, which tested DME blends in propane, and demonstrated it as autogas in a 1988 Buick Century car (U.S. Patent 5,632,786; Basu, Fleisch et.al.; Process and Fuel for Spark Ignition Engines; 1997).
