BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhuanet)-- As European Brent crude oil held firm near its 74 U.S. dollars per barrel record on Thursday, all the world was devoted to looking for new alternative fuel to oil. 

    One of China's choise is dimethyl ether (DME), a clean-burning alternative fuel to liquefied petroleum gas, liquefied natural gas, diesel and gasoline, market experts said.

    DME, extracted from coal, natural gas, biological organisms or even household waste, does not pollute the environment when burnt. For China, with a lack of oil and gas resources but plenty of coal, DME is a good substitute.

    But market experts added the new fuel can be profitable only if crude oil prices keep above 40 U.S. dollars per barrel. 

    Since nowaday global oil prices hover around 70 U.S. dollars, DME costs about 1,000 yuan (123 U.S. dollars) less per ton than diesel fuel.  

    According to data from the Shanghai Coking & Chemical Corporation (SCCC), if Shanghai uses DME to replace the diesel used in the city's 15,000 buses, annual savings on fuel will be over 300 million yuan (37.5 million U.S. dollars). 

    Shanghai Coking & Chemical Corp, a unit of domestic chemical leader Shanghai Huayi Group, put its 5,000-ton-per-year dimethyl ether plant into operation earlier this week. 

    The Shanghai government said it has listed the industrialization of DME fuel as one of its major tasks in a bid to reduce expensive oil consumption as well as to trim emission and noise. 

    China's first DME-fueled bus became operational on May 16 last year. 

    "In order to use DME fuel, we only have to redesign the engine (of each bus) and that only costs some 10,000 yuan (1,250 U.S. dollars)for every vehicle. The cost is not expensive at all," said Huang Zhen, an alternative fuel expert at Jiao Tong University, Shanghai. 

    "The oil prices will break through 80 U.S. dollars per barrel recently," suggested Niu Li, an energy sources expert in Economy Forcasting Department of China National Information Center. 

    After U.S. President George W. Bush refused to rule out nuclear strikes if diplomacy failed to curb Tehran's defiance, the oil prices are going to increase definitely, other experts agreed.
source:Xinhua
tag:new energy,clean energy,China gas