Hyderabad labs lead the charge to develop indigenous DME fuel to replace LPG

The West Asia crisis has renewed focus on India’s dependence on imported LPG. Former CSIR chief Raghunath Mashelkar urged the Union government to adopt Dimethyl Ether (DME), with Hyderabad’s IICT developing technology to produce the fuel from industrial carbon emissions

Hyderabad: The ongoing West Asia crisis, which has highlighted India’s heavy dependence on imported LPG, could well be a blessing in disguise to shift to an indigenous fuel Dimethyl Ether (DME), which can be produced locally, thanks to the efforts by Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) and National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune.

On Thursday, former Director General of CSIR Dr Raghunath Mashelkar called upon the Union government to move beyond LPG and fully embrace Dimethyl Ether (DME) technology.

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Dr Mashelkar argued that the current over-dependence on Middle-Eastern fuel is a strategic vulnerability that Indian science can now solve. The top scientist highlighted the work of CSIR-NCL in developing DME, which is widely regarded as a near-perfect substitute for LPG.

While several CSIR laboratories are focusing on manufacturing DME from methanol, the technology emerging from Hyderabad’s own IICT is being hailed as a game-changer, since researchers here are working on a ‘Waste-to-Wealth’ model and producing DME directly from industrial carbon emissions, known as Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU).

In a landmark partnership with BHEL (R&D), Balanagar, IICT scientists are perfecting a technology that captures industrial carbon dioxide emissions and converts it into clean-burning DME fuel. Recently, IICT signed a formal MoU with BHEL to build a specialised pilot facility to demonstrate the conversion cf carbon dioxide into DME.

The IICT is the lead lab for the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and recently commissioned a unique facility called a Fixed-cum-Fluidised Bed Reactor (FBR), which is the first of its kind in India and is specifically designed to test how to produce high-purity hydrogen and DME at the same time.