(Leuna) – In the Leuna Chemical Park, Saxony-Anhalt, green methanol is to be produced from non-fossil raw materials such as biomass or CO1 using a newly developed technology from the Berlin start-up C2 Green Chemicals AG and the process will be brought to market readiness. According to C1 co-founder Christoph Zehe, the methanol production process has been “completely reinvented”. This enables the production of high-purity green methanol at low pressure and low temperatures at a competitive price.
Methanol from non-fossil sources
Carbon is used in a continuous cycle. The CO2 used comes from industrial process emissions. With “the integrated end-to-end process chain”, the project called “Leuna 100” creates the prerequisites for RED II-compliant production of green methanol. In order to ramp up the market, individual process steps and in particular “their coupling into an overall process would have to be optimized and scaled”.
Visualization of the “Leuna 100” pilot plant for the production of green methanol. According to C1, the flexible container design enables “decentralized production on any plant scale.” © C1 Green Chemicals AG
Today's large-scale industrial production of methanol is based on "a hundred-year-old, technically sophisticated and emissions-heavy production process based on natural gas or coal," according to a statement from Fraunhofer IWES, which is involved in the project. There are currently many individual innovations in the area of renewable fuels, says Michael Seirig, head of the hydrogen laboratories and field tests department at the institute. Various steps in the production of renewable fuels could be electrified and thus converted to renewable energies. “But what is missing is the link between them to really enable a large-scale market ramp-up.” The defossilization of production requires “not just the capability of individual sub-steps, but the coupling and load-serving operation as a whole.” The Fraunhofer IWES provides the research infrastructure in Leuna with its “Hydrogen Lab”.
Methanol as ship fuel
By replacing fossil oil with renewable marine fuels, more than one gigaton of CO2 can be saved every year. Green methanol is becoming established as a climate-neutral fuel alternative, particularly for container ships.
As reported, for example, by the major Danish shipping company Maersk commissioned the construction of 19 methanol-capable ships and concluded contracts with a number of companies for the production and purchase of the energy source. Maersk Growth, the venture capital arm of AP Moller-Maersk, has reportedly invested an undisclosed sum in C1.
The “Leuna 100” project is scheduled to last three years. It is funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport with a total of 10,4 million euros as part of the overall “Renewable Fuels” concept. The C1 consortium includes the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, the DBI-Gastechnologisches Institut gGmbH Freiberg and the Technical University of Berlin.
Details as well as one Description The procedure can be found on the C1 website.
Photos
Fraunhofer IWES provides the location and infrastructure in the “Hydrogen Lab Leuna”. It opened in November 2022. © Linde GmbH / Till Schuster
