DME can replace LPG

By Nellawati

Indonesia should develop the use of dimethyl ether (DME), a clean gas that has the potential to serve as a fuel for domestic applications such as home cooking and for transportation, a discussion revealed.

Unggul Priyanto, a Deputy Chairman at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), said that DME can be a future source of fuel for Indonesia.

Another advantage for DME is that it can be derived from various sources, be it renewable materials such as biomass or fossil fuels like natural gas and coal - resources that Indonesia has in abundance.

BPPT has run a number of studies and tests on the use of DME in home cooking and transportation, Unggul said.

For home cooking, using a mixture of 20 percent DME and 80 percent LPG, the tests show that the resulting fuel can function well on the LPG stoves that are widely used in the country, eliminating the need for a specifically designed DME home cooking equipments.

Editing by Dadan Wijaksana