Volvo announces bio-dimethyl ether partnership

Dimethyl ether (DME) is one of those fuels that is not well known to the general public but is should be, if for no other reason than it promises up to 95 percent carbon neutrality. According to Wikipedia and my Chemistry 101 book, it's a clean-burning gas that can be sourced from renewable materials. In the case of a project leaded by Volvo, the source is something called "black liquor," an energy-rich, highly viscous by-product of the paper pulp industry. The Volvo project uses 14 Volvo FH trucks that will be tested by selected customers at four locations in different parts of Sweden between 2010 and 2012 at four oil company Preem stations. Four tons of bio-DME per day will be made at the Smurfit Kappa Kraftliner pulp plant. DME takes the liquid form at just 5 bar pressure, so it can be used in place of LPG. Potential uses of bio-sourced DME include mixing it with LPG itself to create "bio-LPG." Learn more in this video.

[Source: Volvo]