Amid LPG shortages, CSIR-NCL’s homegrown DME technology promises cleaner alternative, eyes industrial

Amid the ongoing LPG shortage caused by supply chain disruptions, the need for a homegrown, sustainable and eco-friendly cooking fuel has become urgent, with Dimethyl Ether (DME) emerging as a promising alternative.

At the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research- National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), scientists have developed a patent-protected DME production process technology that utilizes an indigenously invented highly active, selective and cost-effective catalyst, ensuring efficient conversion of methanol to DME.

Now, CSIR-NCL in collaboration with a processing engineering partner is ready to scale up the technology to an industrial scale demonstration plant of 2.5 ton per day within 6-9 months.

The demo plant would clear the way for setting up commercial plants of 500-100 ton per day capacity.

“CSIR-NCL is keen to explore partnerships with major oil PSUs and bioenergy companies for commercial scale production,” Dr Ashish Lele, Director, CSIR-NCL said today at a media conference.

“DME, a synthetic fuel boasts several advantages over conventional options.

It burns cleaner, emitting minimal amounts of soot, nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), and particulate matter.

Furthermore, DME exhibits thermal efficiency that is comparable to traditional fuels, making it a viable substitute,” Dr Lele explained.

Also present at the conference were Dr Thirumalaiswamy Raja, chief scientist, catalysis division, CSIR-NCL, Rajesh Date, Managing Director, Atrium Innovation and Vijay Kumar, Managing Director, Texol Engineering, Pirangut.

Dr Raja explained they had developed a patent-protected DME production process technology that utilizes an indigenously invented highly active, selective and cost-effective catalyst, ensuring efficient conversion of methanol to DME.

“Our research team began integrating catalyst chemistry with reactor engineering—an approach that later became the hallmark of this technology,” Dr Raja said.

CSIR-NCL’s technology allows production of DME at 10 bar pressure with minimal opex penalty so that it can be directly filled in LPG cylinders.

This technology has already been successfully scaled up to a pilot capacity of 250 kg per day, Dr Raja added.

CSIR-NCL has further developed a burner prototype that can work on flex mode, from 100% LPG to 100% DME and all the compositions in between.

This patented burner design has been tested for its efficiency at the LPG Equipment Research Centre (LERC),Bangalore.

Domestic production of DME from methanol is the fastest way to reduce dependence on imported LPG, Date said, adding that this technology holds a promise to mitigate the LPG crisis and can be deployed at a larger scale.

Anuradha Mascarenhas is a Senior Editor at The Indian Express, based in Pune.

With a career spanning three decades, she is one of the most respected voices in Indian journalism regarding healthcare, science and environment and research developments.

She also takes a keen interest in covering women's issues .

Professional Background
Education: A gold medalist in Communication and Journalism from Savitribai Phule Pune University and a Master’s degree in Literature.

Author: She authored the biography At The Wheel Of Research, which chronicles the life and work of Dr.

Soumya Swaminathan, the former Chief Scientist at the WHO.

Key Focus: She combines scientific accuracy with storytelling, translating complex medical research into compelling public and human-interest narratives.

Awards and Recognition
Anuradha has won several awards including the Press Council of India's national award for excellence in journalism under the gender based reporting category in 2019 and the Laadli Media award (gender sensitivity -2024).

A recipient of the Lokmat journalism award (gender category-2022), she was also shortlisted for the RedInk awards for excellence in journalism-2021.

Her debut book At The Wheel Of Research, an exclusive biography of Dr Soumya Swaminathan the inaugural chief scientist of World Health Organisation was also nominated in the Popular Choice Category of JK Paper AUTHER awards.

She has also secured competitive fellowships including the Laadli Media Fellowship (2022), the Survivors Against TB – New Research in TB Media Fellowship (2023) and is part of the prestigious 2025 India Cohort of the WomenLift Health Leadership Journey.”
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Signature Beat: Health, Science & Women in Leadership
Anuradha is known for her COVID-19 reportage, where she was one of the first journalists to provide detailed insights into the Covishield and Covaxin trials.

She has a dedicated interest in gender diversity in health and science, often profiling women researchers who are breaking the "leaky pipeline" in STEM fields.

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