Perstorp Develops Sustainable Methanol Route
Sweden‘s Perstorp has developed a new route to produce renewable methanol from carbon waste streams and is in search of funding to try out the new production concept in a plant at Stenungsund. If Project AIR goes ahead, the company said it would be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 500,000 t/y, making progress toward becoming carbon neutral.
The Malmö-based specialty chemicals producer is working together with Swedish energy companies Fortum, Uniper and Nature Energy on realizing the project, which would produce methanol from a variety of recovered end-of-life streams as well as hydrogen from electrolysis
Perstorp’s new “first-of-a-kind,” large-scale commercial Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) unit would use a combined CCU and gasification process to convert CO2, residue streams, renewable hydrogen and bio-methane to methanol.
Starting materials would come from the company’s own CO2 and residue streams and could substitute all of the 200,000 t/y of fossil methanol it uses in its chemical production. To cover energy needs, Fortum and Uniper would supply renewable hydrogen from a new electrolysis plant, and Nature Energy would seek to supply biogas.
The sustainable methanol produced at Stenungsund would be sold to companies farther downstream to produce renewable or circular materials, thus making their portfolios more sustainable, Perstorp said. For the chemical producer itself, completing the project would represent an important step toward achieving its goal of becoming “Finite Material Neutral,” said president and CEO, Jan Secher.
Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist
