OMV takes green methanol from Kasso plant

Green methanol has begun to be shipped to Austria’s OMV from the Solar Park Kasso plant. The plant is operated by a joint venture between Mitsui & Co., Ltd, with a 49% share, and renewable energy company European Energy A/S (51%). The plant, located in Kassø, southern Denmark, was inaugurated on 13 May 2025 and is based on hydrogen derived from solar electricity from the adjacent 304 MW Kassø Solar Park, which is then combined with biogenic CO₂ and distilled to 99.9% purity, suitable for combustion engines and plastics production. The plant makes 42,000 t/a of green methanol.
The initial shipment of green methanol produced by this project was supplied to Danish shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk in May 2025 for use as marine fuel. In the spring of 2026, the project also began to supply methanol for use in chemical products to the LEGO group, a leading toy manufacturer, and Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company. The customer base has continued to expand, including the decision to supply green methanol as a ‘renewable fuel of non-biological origin’ (RFNBO) to leading European energy firm OMV for use as a land-based transportation fuel. Austrian energy firm OMV has begun using green methanol from Kassø as an input for fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), a component of biodiesel sold at its Burghausen refinery in Germany, claiming to be the first energy company in Germany to bring renewable e-methanol into commercial road transport.
Mitsui has designated “Global Energy Transformation 2.0” as one of its key strategic initiatives in its Medium-term Management Plan 2029, with the aim of expanding the range of low-carbon energy products while building an optimised value chain in line with the external environment and customer needs, both of which are changing rapidly. Demand for green methanol is expected to expand across Europe, especially Germany, driven by policy frameworks such as the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III).