Off-grid green e-methanol production

We are actively developing 100-200 kt/y e-methanol plants. Each plant requires around 150-300 kt/y CO2 , 300-500 MW renewable energy capacity, and 225-350 MW electrolysis capacity. Our first plants will reach final investment decision (FID) in 2024 and begin commercial operations in 2026.

We have completed a comprehensive first-of-its-kind technical study and have subsequently developed a concrete framework for the development of industrial-scale, cost-competitive off-grid e-methanol production plants – in a manner that can be deployed rapidly and at scale.

The individual technologies needed to produce green e-methanol are technologically proven and ready to be deployed:

1. Solar PV and onshore wind technologies are commercially available – as proven by average unit investment cost reductions of 80% and 35% between 2010-2020 for PV and onshore wind, respectively.

2. Electrolysis and methanol synthesis technologies have both existed for almost a century. In recent years, new engineering approaches have been developed to (a) standardise and modularise electrolysis and methanol synthesis products and (b) enable these processes to run flexibly to accommodate consumption of variable renewable energy.

3. Transport and storage services for methanol and CO2, including truck transport, ship transport, on-site storage, and CO2 liquefaction, are commercially available and deployed at commercial scale today.

However, our decentralised off-grid model involves a shift in conventional plant operating principles, moving from a siloed mindset – whereby methanol synthesis is seen as a standalone process converting inputs to outputs – to an integrated mindset that considers production cost optimization across renewable energy, electrolysis, methanol synthesis, and where relevant, carbon capture processes.