SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, 26 February 2015 | The State of California has approved DME’s use as a vehicle fuel, allowing the retail sale of DME throughout the state. The regulation, Specifications for Dimethyl Ether Used in Compression Ignition Engines, proposed in July of last year by the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Division of Measurement Standards (DMS), was approved and became effective this year. California state law requires all commercially sold fuels to meet an ASTM or SAE specification, and the publication last year of an ASTM specification for DME fuel provided the basis for California to issue its own regulation.
This latest approval marks another significant milestone enabling commercial adoption of DME as a vehicle fuel in North America, paving the way for further development by industry and the state of infrastructure, sampling equipment, test methods, and a variety of other items required for large scale production and dispensing of the fuel in compliance with statutory requirements. This month the California Air Resources Board (CARB) published its Multimedia Evaluation Tier I report on DME, part of the “multimedia risk assessment” required by the state before new fuel specifications can be adopted.
California enacted the first low-carbon fuel standard in the world in 2007, requiring fuel producers to reduce the carbon footprint of their products, and maintains a significant leadership role in the reduction of air emissions and carbon intensity of fuels used in the transportation sector as the only U.S. state empowered to design and set its own vehicle emission standards.