METHANOL

Description

Methanol is a clear liquid chemical used in thousands of everyday products, including plastics, paints, cosmetics, and fuels. Methanol is also an energy resource used in the marine, automotive, and electricity sectors and an emerging renewable energy resource.

Methanol (CH3OH) is water-soluble and readily biodegradable, comprising four parts hydrogen, one part oxygen, and one part carbon, and is the simplest member of a group of organic chemicals called alcohols. Methanol is a clean-burning, biodegradable fuel. Increasingly, methanol’s environmental and economic advantages make it an attractive alternative fuel for powering vehicles and ships, cooking food, and heating homes.

Typically, methanol is produced with natural gas. However, with increasing interest in sustainability, methanol has proven versatile in its production pathways. More projects are utilizing renewable feedstocks such as agricultural waste, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), sewage, renewable electricity, and captured CO2.

Methanol production with renewable feedstocks significantly reduces greenhouse gas intensity and contributes to the energy transition in end-user markets. As a building block for many downstream chemicals, sustainably produced methanol facilitates the growth of the green chemicals sector. Sustainably produced methanol is also being utilized as an alternative drop-in fuel in shipping, road transport, and power generation to lower overall emissions and impact on the environment.