PlanEnergi together with Haldor Topsøe, Energinet and few other project partners from the industry and research environment, since 2019 has been involved in the development project regarding an innovative and sustainable methanol production technology. The innovative element of the production process lies in the compact and relatively cheap reactor (eREACT) design which is electrically heated and hence enables producing methanol in periods when sustainable RE electricity is available in excess.
Unlike the classical methanol production method based on highly carbon intensive steam reforming of hydrocarbons, eREACT provides significant CO2 savings, since it absorbs the CO2 content of the biogas used as a feedstock. Compared to another electricity driven methanol production method using electrolysis, eREACT demonstrates to consume less electricity and utilise CO2 directly form the biogas
During the 4-year project period, a concept methanol production plant (eREACT-MeOH) has been realised, a pilot plant has being built, the plant operation along with the final MeOH product tested, a possibility of realising a large-scale system analysed and market potential for the economically viable implementation assessed. The technical concept and design of the reactor has been established by Haldor Topsøe, while Energinet provided an insight over future gas and electricity infrastructure, and PlanEnergi has been responsible for providing experience on a biogas infrastructure and identifying the most economically feasible methanol production scenarios. PlanEnergi performed an optimisation of the system operation and business case analysis for the methanol plant using a new developed electrified reformer and biogas as a fuel feedstock. They calculated alternative CO2 applications to methanol production including CO2 liquification and export.
