Total and Japan form alliance to produce 'clean' fuel

In the often snow-covered landscape of northern Japan, French oil giant Total is working with a Japanese consortium with a goal of mass producing by 2010 a new eco-friendly fuel derived from natural gas. At Kushiro on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, a factory is serving as a testbed for the production of the "clean" gas dimethylether, or DME.
When it is at normal temperature and pressure, DME could pass for water, but vaporises quickly. Spread on the ground, it evaporates within seconds. But when it is set alight, the flame is blue and it becomes a gas - one which emits no sulphur oxides.
Among the advantages - it is produced through renewable resources or fossil fuels, it releases little greenhouse gas and is easily transportable as a liquid. Questions, however, remain about its profitability.
"When you produce DME, there is a lot less carbon dioxide, or other kinds of waste. And when you use it, there are no more carbon dioxide emissions than with LNG (liquefied natural gas) and a lot less than with coal," said Hubert de Mestier, Total's Northeast Asia chief representative.
"It could in time replace diesel and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). It doesn't need a catalytic exhaust pipe and is probably cheaper than conventional fuels," said de Mestier.
DME is non-toxic but highly inflammable. In addition to natural gas, it can be produced from a base of industrial waste or oil residue.
It can be put to diverse use, serving as home cooking gas, a propellant for spray cans or powering small to medium sized power plants and automobiles.
DME can also work as a substitute for diesel, with experiments already conducted to set up a DME-electric hybrid car.
"We are able to have at once a fuel that is very clean and emits little green house gas," Total chief executive Thierry Desmarest told AFP at a recent sustainable development forum in Tokyo.
"It's a good solution both environmentally and in terms of resources as the world's resources of gas are greater than those of oil," he said.
DME came about because of the particular circumstances of Japan.