China's milestone in methanol praised

The torch lighting at the recent Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, was fueled by carbon-zero methanol, marking the Games' historic shift toward eco-friendly energy sources.

The carbon-neutral green methanol drew praise from Methanol Institute CEO Greg Dolan, underscoring the event's dedication to sustainability and innovation.

"It was a landmark event for methanol being used to fuel the cauldron for the Asian Games," Dolan said.

"A really big milestone, and it shines a very bright light on methanol for not only the participating 45 countries in the Asian Games, but globally," he told China Daily in an interview. "I think it becomes a really important symbol that methanol is a clean and sustainable fuel for the future."

The torch's methanol was produced in Henan province in a new emissions-to-liquid plant that opened in February, Dolan said.

That technology comes from Carbon Recycling International (CRI) in Iceland, which has operated methanol plants there for the last 11 years, he said. The technology captures industrial emissions and converts them into green fuels and chemicals, according to CRI.

The facility in Henan, partly funded by automaker Geely, is the first of its type in the world to produce methanol — a valuable fuel and chemical feedstock — at a commercial scale from captured-waste carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases, CRI said.

"China becomes such a great testing ground and proving ground for these technologies," Dolan said. "When China gets into new markets like this, it does so in a large way; everything's bigger in China."

Geely, based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, has also shown tremendous leadership in the renewable energy industry, Dolan said. The company is the leader in producing methanol that will be used as a transportation fuel, he said.

Geely currently has 30,000 taxis running on methanol in China. The company is also developing commercial vehicles, heavy-duty trucks and buses that run on methanol.

There have been announced projects that, when combined, would yield a capacity of 2 billion liters of renewable methanol production in China, Dolan said. And new project announcements are coming out almost every week in China.

"So when we look at the opportunities for renewable methanol as a sustainable fuel, it's being led in China, in Europe, and we think in the US, particularly with the Inflation Reduction Act and the increased tax-subsidy support, that we'll see more of that production taking place in the US," Dolan said. "But globally today, the leaders are in China and Europe."

Renewable methanol, identical to fossil fuel methanol but from sustainable sources, offers low-carbon, clean-burning fuel for various applications and reduces pollution. Despite the industry's promise, it still is looking for large-scale solutions.

For example, global shipping consumes around 400 metric tons of diesel bunker fuel a year. A study by the American Bureau of Shipping reveals the need for 50 million tons of methanol for ships by 2030.

"So, we're going to need to see a lot of methanol production, not only renewable or green methanol but also more conventional methanol production from natural gas and other conventional feedstocks," Dolan said.

"The challenge is so huge; we need to do it at scale. So that's the other thing that we're seeing now developing in China, (which is the first country) to really open these facilities at large commercial scale," Dolan said.

A carbon dioxide (CO2)-to-methanol production facility was up and running last year in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, on the east coast of China. The plant will recycle approximately 150,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, equivalent to the effect of taking 53,000 fossil fueled cars off the roads, Carbon Recycling International reported.

Global shipping accounts for 3 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to Dolan.

"And we now have methanol engines that can be used in ships. A lot of the methanol vessels being ordered and built are, in fact, being constructed in Chinese shipyards," he said.

"The two projects in Henan and Lianyungang … become real lighthouse projects for global energy diversification. They're showing a way that this can be done and can be done at scale," he said.