Technological developments

Some of the potential future developments in the ether market could include:

• Higher Octane Gasoline: There is a clear relation between higher octane fuels and increased fuel and engine efficiency.  For example, the SAE paper 2006-01-3407, "The Impact of Gasoline Octane on Fuel Economy in Modern Vehicles”, showed that switching from 91-octane to 95-octane gasoline could lead to fuel economy benefits of up to 4.3%.
  
  Secondly, higher octane fuels contribute to a cleaner environment as higher octane ratings enable a more complete combustion of the fuel which reduces exhaust emissions and improves air quality.  The requirement of the EU Fuel Quality and Renewable Energy Directives to add increasing amounts of biofuels, all of which are high octane components, creates the opportunity to increase vehicle efficiency by raising the minimum octane requirements of European gasoline.Bio-ethers have the capacity to raise the fuel octane number and reduce exhaust emissions in the air. They are therefore the preferred choice of many refiners when looking for cleaner and more efficient transportation fuels.
  
  
• Bio-MTBE Production: The Renewable Energy Directive states that if a biofuel is derived from a waste or residue, a so called 2nd generation biofuel, the bio-energy content can be double-counted. The double counting is there as an incentive to move to 2nd generation biofuels. Bio-methanol based on crude glycerin, a waste product from biodiesel production is available in Europe, albeit in limited volumes. Bio-MTBE produced from this bio-methanol therefore has a bio-energy content higher than bio-ETBE.
  
  
• Conversion of TAME to TAEE: For the moment only a small fraction of the EU TAME (fossil) capacity has been converted to bio-TAEE.  It is likely that the requirement to add increasing volumes of biofuels will make it more difficult for refiners to continue to use the same amount of fossil material to produce gasoline. One of these materials is C5 or iso-amylenes,  However, one of the potential outlets for these C5 streams is to convert it to bio-TAEE.  TAEE with its low volatility and high octane is therefore an attractive opportunity for a) using ‘excess’ C5 streams and b) introducing biofuels.
  
  
• Ternary Blending: A mixture of a fuel ether e.g. ETBE or TAEE, ethanol and petrol is called a ternary or three-way blend.  Ternary blending has specific advantages compared to directly blended ethanol alone.
  • Adding ETBE or TAEE to gasoline and ethanol will improve (lower) the vapour pressure of the mixture making it easier for refineries to meet the fuel specification limit of 60 kPa defined in the Fuel Quality Directive. Ternary blending therefore reduces VOC emissions further than directly blended ethanol only. 
  • The ability to stabilise or lower the vapour pressure will especially be beneficial in the warmer EU countries of the Mediterranean Region where heat increases the volatility of the fuel (source: SAE International Journal of Fuels and Lubricants April 2009 vol. 1 no. 1 1584-1594