January 2017

DME Insider Briefing

DME-powered Class 8 Mack Pinnacle DSNY truck
Fresh Kills Landfill, Staten Island, New York

© Ron Jautz 2017

First Customer Demonstration of DME-Powered Mack Truck Begins in New York City
NEW YORK | The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) has become the first Mack customer in the world to evaluate DME in its fleet,
in a demonstration being done in collaboration with Mack Trucks and Oberon Fuels using a Class 8 Mack Pinnacle axle back model equipped with
a 13 liter Mack MP8 engine running on DME. "We look forward to gathering data with DSNY and Oberon to better determine the performance and
drivability of the DME-powered Mack Pinnacle model," said Mack Trucks President Dennis Slagle. "We believe DME shows great promise, and
we are pleased to be working with our longtime customer DSNY to evaluate the fuel as a viable alternative to diesel."

The evaluation is taking place at the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, New York, with fuel-grade DME produced by Oberon Fuels. "There is no
better testing ground than NYC, and we are thrilled to partner with the city," said Oberon Fuels President Rebecca Boudreaux, Ph.D. "This first-
ever customer demonstration of a DME Mack truck is an excellent opportunity to showcase the potential of DME in real-world use cases." The goal
of the demonstration is to gather data on the use of both DME fuel and vehicles in urban, heavy-load fleets, and is the first step in the city's
evaluation of DME as a potential long-term strategy to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 and to achieve the city's goal
of sending zero waste to landfill by 2030. The demonstration is expected to run until the end of the first quarter of this year, with results and analysis
available in mid-2017.

At scale, such a program could convert hundreds of thousands of tons of organic waste into
clean fuel, reducing emissions, waste, and cost for cities while improving overall air quality
and creating jobs. When produced from local organic waste, DME can reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by 68 - 101 percent compared to diesel, as calculated by the US
Environmental Protection Agency and the recently published analysis by the US Department
of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory. One third of all waste currently disposed of in New
York is organic: by recycling such waste into DME fuel, New York and other cities can reduce
landfill use, lower emissions, and improve air quality as part of an overall sustainability plan.

New York city’s waste management fleet is one of the largest in the world, and has been
recognized for its active efforts to test and deploy alternative fuels and environmentally
friendly technologies. “DSNY has long been at the forefront of developing, testing, and
deploying cleaner and more advanced heavy-duty trucks,” said Deputy Commissioner Rocco
DiRico. “DME fuel certainly has potential to be a long term option for us, and this initial test
is an important first step in the evaluation process.” DiRico and DSNY Fleet Supervisor Spiro
DME dispenser serving DSNY Mack demonstration
Kattan commented that they were especially impressed that no emissions components were
required on the truck’s engine, given that DME combusts without producing any soot. “It’s a very simplified version of what we know today. And it
has the torque, the horsepower and the driveability that we so need.”

Patron members

©2017 International DME Association

www.aboutdme.org
 DME Insider Briefing
January 2017

Mack Trucks dominates the North American refuse market, and is the main supplier of heavy-duty trucks to
the New York Department of Sanitation (DSNY), supplying more than 90% of the DSNY's fleet of over 7,000
vehicles. Founded in New York City in 1900, Mack Trucks is today one of the largest producers of heavy-duty
trucks and engines in North America, with sales and service in more than 45 countries worldwide provided
through a distribution network. All Mack trucks built for the North American market are produced in Macungie,
Pennsylvania, while development and manufacture of all Mack heavy-duty diesel engines, transmissions and
drivelines is done at its plant in Hagerstown, Maryland.

On-Road OEM Demonstrations Validate DME Vehicles’ Power, Reliability, and Low Emissions
Ford, Isuzu, Nissan, Mack, Mitsubishi, Volvo and Weichai Power have all developed heavy-, medium-
or light-duty diesel engines that run on DME, and Mack’s evaluation with the New York City Department
of Sanitation (DSNY) is just the latest in a series of demonstrations that have seen DME vehicles cover
more than one million kilometers (six hundred thousand miles +) in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Volvo has been working with the State of California and field-testing heavy-duty DME-powered vehicles in
the United States since 2013, having in 2012 completed a major field-test together with customers in
Sweden involving ten DME-powered heavy-duty trucks that ran more than 800,000 kilometers (500,000
miles +). In China a consortium including Weichai Power (industrial, heavy-duty vehicle and powertrain
manufacturer), China Jinggong (vehicle manufacturer), and Shanghai Diesel (engine manufacturer)
Mack demonstration | USA
performed a demonstration of short-haul DME heavy-duty street sweeper and refuse trucks in a project
led by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In Japan, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, and Nissan have demonstrated light-,
medium-, and heavy-duty DME trucks and buses in both short-haul and long distance trials throughout the
country, with one Isuzu demonstration covering more than 100,000 kilometers (62,000 miles) alone. Ford
Motor Company is leading a project to develop and test the world’s first production passenger car running
on DME, in collaboration with Germany’s leading engine technology research network the FVV, whose
more than 150 members include BMW, Bosch, Caterpillar, DAF Trucks, Daimler, Delphi, Honda, MAN,
Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Toyota, Shell, Volkswagen and Volvo.

The vehicle demonstrations typically also involve field-tests of refueling equipment such as storage tanks,
dispensers, nozzles and couplings, enabling valuable evaluation and development of the equipment to be Isuzu demonstration | Japan
accomplished directly with the manufacturers. Work on the publication of international standards for DME
components is now underway, with an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) workgroup
recently created to draft standards for Fuel System Components and Refueling Connector for Vehicles
Propelled by DME. The workgroup, allocated within the ISO structure to Technical Committee 22 (Road
vehicles), Subcommittee 41 (Specific aspects for gaseous fuels), Workgroup 8 (“TC22 / SC41 / WG08”),
is currently reviewing the draft for the refueling connector standard, with fuel system components the next
item of business. Given the similarity between the physical properties of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)
and DME, modification of existing standards related to LPG onboard components is being used as a basis
for drafting of the new DME standards.

Volvo demonstration | USA

Events
CALSTART Clean, Low-Carbon Fuels Summit
27 – 28 February 2017
Capital Plaza Halls
Sacramento, California

Climate Leadership Conference

1 – 3 March 2017
DSNY demonstration | USA Weichai Power demonstration | China
Chicago Marriott Downtown
Chicago, Illinois

Japan DME Symposium

13 March 2017
Tokyo

10th Asian DME Conference

24 – 26 October 2017
Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI)
Seoul BioDME project demonstration | Sweden Volvo demonstration | Sweden

DME Insider Briefing is published by the International DME Association for members of the association

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www.aboutdme.org