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Category: Commodity

Methanol from biomass

Chinese electrolyser manufacturer LONGi Green Energy has begun construction on a $325 million green methanol project in Inner Mongolia that will combine biomass gasification with hydrogen from the company’s electrolysers. The project, being developed at the Urad Rear Banner Industrial Park, will process 600,000 t/a of agricultural waste to produce 190,000 t/a of green methanol in the first phase. Phase 2 will expand ethanol capacity to 400,000 t/a, with hydrogen coming from new electrolysers powered by 850 MW of wind and 200 MW of solar power. LONGi says that the project will cut carbon dioxide emissions by 1.2 million t/a, while adding more than 1 GW of wind and solar capacity to the region’s energy mix.

Coal based fertilizer and methanol plant proposal

Suiso, a South African company specialising in blue ammonia production, is set to invest $1.7 billion in a coal-to-fertiliser facility in Kriel, Mpumalanga in the east of South Africa. The proposal is for a 1.5 million t/a ‘blue’ ammonia-urea plant which will replace South Africa’s annual imports of 1.2 million t/a of urea, as well as producing 235,000 t/a of blue methanol for fuels, using advanced decarbonisation and carbon capture technologies. Suiso is partnering with Sinopec Ningbo Engineering, Stamicarbon, and ETG – the latter will distribute Suiso’s fertilisers across Africa, supporting local agriculture and long-term food security.