Decarbonising UK Industry through Low-Carbon Fuels: Evaluating Dimethyl Ether in Marine Applications

For a long time, the search has been on to find a fuel for marine compression engines that is environmentally friendly, stores easily and transported simply. This has been realized in dimethyl ether (DME), a fuel that can be used as a direct substitute for diesel. Unlike compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquid natural gas (LNG), most importantly, DME can be used in compression engines, which substantially impacts the potential applications of this fuel over LNG, CNG, ethanol or methanol. It does not require a particulate filter or a selective catalytic reduction ("SCR") system, so engines are much cheaper and less complicated than standard diesel engines. They are exempt from the filter cleaning and the "add blue" protocols of modern diesel engines. All of this justifies the commencement of work on new technologies for DME production from natural gas.
DME is conventionally produced from methane and a biomass feedstocks, which are not net carbon neutral. There are scare few technologies that can direct convert CO2 or natural gas to DME, in high yields and selectivities. The recent hybrid catalytic platform that we have evolved has demonstrated highly effective CO2 storage for subsequently utilisation (CCU) in fuels and polymers. This project will build on these latest findings to design a catalytic platform for the direct conversion of CO2 to DME, leading to the development of clean marine fuels. The strategy aims to reduce the CO2 intensity of international shipping by at least 40% by 2030 and to cut total GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050, both relative to a 2008 baseline.