Haldor Topsoe fires up sustainable methanol production
Danish chemical technologies specialist Haldor Topsoe is aiming to reduce carbon emissions from fuels and chemicals by setting up a sustainable methanol demonstration plant in its native Denmark.
Topsoe specialises in energy-efficient technologies that produce clean transportation fuels as well as ammonia, methanol, and hydrogen – universally regarded as the most important fuels and chemicals in a carbon-neutral future.
Read more: Green hydrogen and methanol project announced in Iceland
The company is part of two of the world’s largest renewable hydrogen projects, the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia and the Copenhagen project, both based on power from wind turbines and solar panels.
In October, the company began operating a demonstration plant for the production of sustainable methanol production from biogas. With the demonstration plant, Topsoe will validate its electrified technology for cost-competitive production of sustainable methanol from biogas as well as other sustainable products.
The demonstration plant is located at Aarhus University’s research facility in Foulum, Denmark. The plant will have an annual capacity of 10,0000 litres of CO2-neutral methanol from biogas and green power and is scheduled to be fully operational by the beginning of 2022.
“Fighting climate change demands clean fuels for all sectors. With this initiative, we will demonstrate that we are able to transform classical production process into a fully carbon-neutral scheme," says Kim Grøn Knudsen, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Haldor Topsoe.
"Specifically, we will demonstrate that sustainable methanol can be produced from biogas at a very competitive cost compared to other green methanol produced from non-fossil fuels.”
The main feature in the demonstration plant is Topsoe’s eSMR technology, which enables not only the production of sustainable methanol, but also other sustainable products such as green hydrogen, green ammonia, eFuels, and more.
The eSMR technology produces synthesis gas (syngas), an essential building block in the production of polymers (plastics) and chemicals. The eSMR technology is CO2-neutral when based on biogas as feedstock and green electricity for heating.
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The technology even utilises half the CO2 that makes up about 40% of biogas and typically is costly to separate and vent in the production of grid quality biogas. Methanol is used as a clean fuel or an important intermediary in the production of various fuels, chemicals and polymers.
The demonstration programme is part of Topsoe’s ambition to take part in the global movement to reduce the global carbon footprint and one of many initiatives to develop solutions for sustainable aviation, shipping and heavy transportation in general.
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