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How are fuel ethers made?

Fuel ethers can be produced from both petrochemical and renewable feedstock. The building blocks for fuel ethers are olefins combined with methanol or ethanol.

Production facilities of fuel ethers are typically located near feedstock supplies, either at a refinery with a fluid catalytic cracker unit, or at a chemical plant with a steam cracker. There are also large-scale “stand-alone” units based on butane isomerisation/dehydrogenation technology, where both the butane and the methanol are derived from gas sources of low alternative value, or dehydration of tertiary butyl alcohol.

How will fuel ethers decarbonize road transport and improve air quality?

1

Renewable feedstocks to deliver CO2 reduction faster

Feedstock
FOSSIL
Olefins (butenes or isobutylenes) can be derived from natural gas or as a by-product of petroleum refining.
Olefins
BIO
Bio-olefins can be produced grom various sources including cane sugar, starch or raw “second generation” materials either made from agricultural and forestry waste of from household, municipal and industrial waste.
Methanol
Methanol can be produced from natural gas, biomass, landfill gas, captured CO2 or municipale waste.
Alcohol
Ethanol
Ethanol is produced from the fermenting process of corn, sugar cane and other agriculutural products.
Fuel ethers
Olefins and alcohols are combined in a fluid catalytic cracker unit or in a steam cracker to produce fuel ethers.
2

Renewable fuel ethers for zero-carbon liquid fuels

  • Renewable fuel ethers combine bio-feedstocks with renewable iso-butylene produced from renewable naphtha.
  • Using novel techniques e.g. steam cracker co-feeding makes our ethers 100% renewable blendstock for net zero-carbon liquid fuels.
Ether production

Fuel ethers are blended with petrol at the refinery

MTBE BIO-MTBE BIO-ETBE
TAME BIO-TAME BO-TAEE

blending in refinery
3

Fuel ethers as high-quality octane boosters

  • Too often metals and harmful chemicals are still blended to increase the petrol’s octane.
  • They affect the engine’s durability and increase NOx emissions. Ethers however are a high-quality octane booster with no impact on engines and help decrease emissions fast.
4

Produced and handled in accordance with most stringent HSE requirements

  • Fuel ethers are produced in accordance with the latest health, safety and environmental regulations.
  • Fuel ether producers uphold and promote the highest standards of safety in the production, transportation, (underground) storage and use of fuel ethers.
  • This makes our ethers a safe product under normal conditions of use i.e. car refueling.
Transportation
5

Existing infrastructure is already in place to deploy renewable fuel ethers

  • Renewable fuel ethers are blended in refineries and transported using existing infrastructure.
  • Fuel ethers also help save more than 50,000 tonnes of ozone precursos such as VOCs per year, emissions which also take place during refueling.
Fuel station distribution
6

High-octane fuels improve air quality and provide fuel efficiency to accelerate CO2 reductions

  • Adding fuel ethers to petrol increases the octane and CO2 savings through higher fuel consumption efficiency.
  • Introducing RON 102 would lower fuel consumption by 7%, resulting in 20 million tonnes of CO2 savings per year.
  • Fuel ethers also immediately address poor air quality: pollutant emissions such as toxics, VOCs and particulate matters (PM) are reduced drastically: with circa 1% of MTBE resulting in a 2-3% PM emission reductions, fuel ethers deliver immediately in reducing health impacts of poor air quality.
Passenger car driving
With regulatory and market incentives in place, fuel ethers will progressively become fully renewable. Renewable fuel ethers combine bio-feedstocks, like corn, sugar cane and agricultural waste with renewable iso-butylene produced from renewable naphtha. They equally increase the octane of fuels, resulting in lower CO2 emissions and minimizing toxic emissions.
Fuel ethers of tomorrow
FAQ

Zooming in on n-octane boosters: what are the health, environmental and mechanical risks?

FAQ

Study shows ETBE is not likely to be a mutagenic carcinogen

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