South Korean interest in DME continues to grow

WWW.BLUEFUELENERGY.COM: Above and beyond the Asian DME Conference held in Seoul in September, two recent news items indicate that South Korean government and private interest in DME/Blue Fuel and its applications continues to grow.

The first story, which appeared in the Korean language Maeil Business Newspaper and was reported by Reuters in their daily press digest on Oct 21, said that the South Korean government is "working on commercialising dimethylether fuel, which is 20-30 percent cheaper than liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), by December, according to the Knowledge Economy Ministry."

The second story, also reported by both Maeil and Reuters, this time on Oct 20, said that "South Korea's state-run Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) will invest about 400 billion won ($344.9 million) to build an energy plant in Saudi Arabia, the company said on Wednesday."

Reuters also reported that, "Earlier in the day, the Maeil Business Newspaper cited sources at the economy ministry and KOGAS as saying that the company would sign a preliminary deal with the Saudi Arabian government on Nov. 2 for the plant in Jubail, which would have an annual capacity of 300,000 tonnes of dimethylether (DME) from 2013."

DME world gearing up for 6th Asian DME Conference in Seoul

BLUEFUELENERGY.COM: The 6th annual Asian DME Conference (2009) will take place in Seoul, South Korea from Thursday, September 17th to Saturday September 19th, 2009.

Hosted by the Korea DME Association (chairman, Professor Gye-Gyu Lim, who is also president of the KDA), the conference venue is the Hotel Seoul KyoYuk MunHwa HoeKwan (located in southern Seoul near the Yang-Jae subway station on Line 3, south of the Han River).

According to the conference website, there will be technical tour on Sept. 19th and presentation topics include:

1. Technology / Society / Economic Vision of DME
2. Manufacturing Technology of DME
3. The Technology of Using DME in Development of Commerce, Industry,
4. LPG / Diesel Alternatives
5. Environment Issues & DME Safety
6. Supply Plan of DME (Market, Business Model, Supply Chain etc.).

Pre-registration deadline for the Asian DME conference is August 31, 2009.

The International DME Association website, lists other key conferences to follow including the International Conference on Coal Science & Technology in Cape Town, South Africa (Oct 26 - 29, 2009) and the World Methanol Conference in Miami, Florida, USA (Dec 8-9, 2009).