Dipetane drives down greenhouse gases

Sunday Business Post - Autumn Motoring Supplement - Sep 16 2007

A fuel treatment made in Ireland could help the government to comply with EU targets to reduce carbon emissions in member states, writes Dermot Corrigan

A unique fuel treatment developed by a Wicklow company could help the Irish government to comply with targets laid out by the European Commission to reduce carbon emissions in all member states by 20 per cent by 2020.

Drew McDowell, managing director of Dipetane International, said the fuel treatment manufactured by his company could benefit the environment and save motorists money by buring the carbons that build up in motor engines, resulting in cleaner and more economic fuel usage.

“Use of Dipetane could save the government millions in fuel supports and reduce all the fines to nil,” said McDowell. “It would also make us all Kyoto compliant immediately.”

“We have also asked the Minister (for the Environement) to consider giving a one to two per cent duty relief for Dipetane fuels,” added McDowell. “Really the governmnt should be encouraging people to use best practice fuels like Dipetane. We could then have the same amount of vehicles on the road, or even more, and still have fewer emissions.”

McDowell said that Dipetane had the effect of increasing the output of standard fuels, including diesel and petrol, by 10 per cent.

"It reduces all greenhouse gases by 25 per cent and reduce smoke by 50 per cent. It can also increase engine life by 40 per cent.”

A report released last month by the Environmental Protection Agency found that temperatures in Ireland are rising twice as fast as in other countries. McDowell said a major factor driving this trend is the high rate of fuel emissions from motor vehicles in Ireland.

“(Our Company) is 21 years at this, but it is only in the last couple of years that the world has accepted the need to reduce greenhouse gases,” he said. “In previous years oil was too cheap, and nobody gave two hoots about the environment.”


Dipetane International was developed in Ireland in 1985. Its eco-friendly fuel treatment is now manufactured and distributed around the world from its facility in Kilcoole Industrial Estate.

Motorists can purchase Dipetane over the counter, said McDowell.

“ We have been selling Dipetance through motor factors for the last five years,” he said. “We now have 60 outlets alone in the Dublin area selling Dipetane to individual car owners covering petrol, diesel and bio-diesel fuels. Our customers include about 600 taxi-drivers who use Dipetane continuously in their cars.”

Dipetane is also available in garage forecourts nationwide. A one litre bottle costs €10.

McDowell said some businesses in Ireland had been using Dipetane in their fleets since the 1980s.

“Dipetane has been used in many Irish companies and organisations over the last 18 years, including the likes of Coca-Cola, Roadstone and the Irish Army,” he said. “All our customers are getting one vehcicle in ten on the road at nil fuel costs.”

McDowell said the introduction in 2000 of the National Car Test (NCT), had increased demand for his company's product.

“Dipetane is the sole pre-combustion technology used anywhere in the world," he said. "It does not use any detergents or additives. Standard combustion cannot cope with unburnt carbon and they have to use detergents to wash it away. This is very wasteful and also creates combustion chamber deposits which uses more fuels and creates more emissions.”

Last May, Dipetane won a €2 million deal with the W Y Energy Development Company in China. The agreement will see Dipetane used in 20,000 trucks and vans, 10,000 taxis, 20,000 buses and many thousand private cars. The aim is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Beijing by one million tonnes.

“It started on a trial basis two years ago,” said McDowell. “Now we are sending containers to China every month with 20,000 litres of Dipetane per container.”

McDowell said Dipetane was currently in negotiations with a number of other international customers.

“We are just starting off with Argos in France who are going to do all of their home heating for the whole of France with Dipetane treated fuels, so we have quite a number of irons in the fire,” he said.