A $6 million research partnership should allow a clean-burning synthetic fuel to hit the market, with CSIRO and its Indian equivalent coming together to fire-up the new power supply.

With Australia’s liquid transport fuel supplies declining and transport needs growing, a collaborative effort has been launched to provide a solution in the form of dimethyl ether (DME). CSIRO and India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have embarked on the project in the effort to ease prices for both nations.

The plan is to improve several different methods for producing DME. Currently it can come from multiple sources including natural gas, coal, biomass, or even directly from carbon dioxide.

According to CSIRO’s Dr Nick Burke, “There are over half a million vehicles currently using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in Australia - all of which could be powered using DME. The fact that DME can be used as a blend in existing LPG engines makes it an effective transitional fuel”.

“Australia’s heavy reliance on diesel could also be lessened with the added possibility of DME being able to replace diesel in the future” he says.

“In India, LPG is currently used for cooking in more than 33 million homes and demand is increasing with imports rising rapidly,” says leader of the Indian consortium, Dr Garg.

Early research has shown DME produces significantly less pollution than conventional fuels, and it will reduce urban pollution if it can take up enough of the fossil-fuel market.

The research will also assist in the development of small plants that may be suitable in remote and rural areas. Professor Suresh Bhargava from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) says; “more efficient processing of gas into transportable fuels at remote locations would make Australia and India’s remote gas reserves more economically viable.”

The three-year project has been funded by both the Australian and Indian governments through the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF).