The reporter learned from the National Standardization Management Committee that on September 21, the People’s Republic of China's National Standard Approval Announcement No. 4 (Total No. 159) was officially issued in 2010, of which GB25035-2010 “Dimethyl Ether for Town Gas†will be published next year. Formally implemented on July 1. The reporter learned from the interview that the issuance of national standards has disappointed dimethyl ether enterprises. Because the National Standard for Dimethyl Ether from Town Gas clearly stipulates that dimethyl ether can only be burned as a town gas, and it is required to be used exclusively for special bottles. This means that incorporation of liquefied gas, which is the largest application market for DME producers, is facing **, and the DME industry must accelerate the reshuffle.
As early as January 1, 2008, the industry standard for "Dimethyl Ether for Town Gas" released by the Ministry of Construction has been implemented. However, the proportion of dimethyl ether and liquefied gas blending is facing regulatory issues, which restricts the promotion and application of dimethyl ether for gas. For example, in March 2008, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) issued the "Notice on Relevant Problems of Cylinder Filling," which explicitly prohibits the addition of dimethyl ether to liquefied gas. For a long time, the lack of national standards has caused the application of dimethyl ether in the field of civil gas to face “encirclement and interception.†DME enterprises are looking forward to the promulgation of national standards so that they have a legal status as civilian fuels.
According to one of the national standard editors, Professor Yu Gongqian of China Municipal Engineering Research Institute North China Design and Research Institute, the national standard stipulates that the quality of dimethyl ether used in town gas is ≥99.0% and methanol is <1.0%, which means that Burn, and special bottle. This again triggered the dimethyl ether enterprise hot discussion.
Wang Hongxing, sales manager of Shandong Yuhuang Chemical Co., Ltd., told reporters that 90% of dimethyl ether was blended with liquefied gas, and currently the market is using liquefied petroleum gas cylinders mixed with dimethyl ether. If pure burning, it will face the problem of market re-promotion. Used in town gas, consumers have known that dimethyl ether is not as resistant to burning as liquefied gas, and promotion is difficult; industrial applications have not yet been promoted. At present, the domestic production capacity of dimethyl ether has reached 6 million to 8 million tons/year, and the production capacity is so great. If it is limited to pure burning, it will be very unfavorable for its promotion and application.
According to Jing Yuguo, general manager of Hebei Kaiyue Group, whose dimethyl ether production capacity reaches 1 million tons/year, from the current situation, the process of pure burning promotion still needs a process. Zou Benzheng, the assistant director of the New Austrian Group, believes that the marketing of pure burning is a little bit troublesome, but it can be turned to the chemical industry in the future.
According to Zeng Xiangzhao, member of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Bottle Branch of the National Gas Cylinders Standardization Technical Committee and a senior engineer of Guangdong Yingquan Steel Products Co., Ltd., the current dimethyl ether utilization rate is only 30%, and the promulgation of national standards will speed up the industry reshuffle. For dimethyl ether companies, before the standard was formally implemented, the development of a pure burning market became a top priority.