Haldor Topsoe to build a demo plant to produce methanol from biogas and green electricity

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Type of post: NEWS.

Haldor Topsoe will build a methanol plant to scale-up its electrified and extremely compact eSMR Methanol™ technology for production of sustainable methanol from biogas. It is expected to demonstrate that the process can compete with traditional methanol production based on fossil fuels in terms of cost.
Press release: “Topsoe to build demonstration plant to produce cost-competitive CO2-neutral methanol from biogas and green electricity”, 16/7/2019.

Figure 1. Comparison between a traditional reactor and the electrified compact reactor of Haldor Topsoe

Location
Aarhus University’s research facility in Foulum (Denmark)
Feedstocks
The technology exploits the full carbon potential of biogas by utilizing even the 40% CO2 content which is routinely separated and vented today.
Green electricity from wind turbines or solar panels instead of natural gas.
Product and production capacity
10 kg/h of methanol.
Start-up
Beginning of 2022.

eSMR Methanol™ technology features

- The unit is about 100 times smaller than the traditional ones. A conventional steam reforming unit can reach the size of a six-story building whereas the compact unit has only a few cubic meters.
- It replaces the natural gas-fired heating of traditional steam reformers with the direct electric heating of the catalytic process.
- It is a very attractive solution for decentral biogas sites and world scale producers alike. Today, biogas in grid quality is much costlier to produce than the natural gas it replaces. If biogas producers can generate sustainable methanol, they will be able to increase their production value significantly and compete on commercial terms with fossil-based products. Methanol is used as a clean fuel or an important intermediary in the production of many chemicals and polymers.
- It is CO2-neutral when based on biogas as feedstock and green electricity for heating.

The project

Haldor Topsøe is leading the eSMR Methanol™ project, which includes the partners Aarhus University, Sintex A/S, Blue World Technology ApS, Technical University of Denmark, Energinet A/S, Aalborg University and PlanEnergi. The project is supported by the EUDP Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program.

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