OCI Global, a leading provider of nitrogen, methanol, and hydrogen, has announced ambitious plans to significantly expand its green methanol production capacity to approximately 400,000 metric tonnes per year.
This expansion marks OCI Global’s entry into the production of green hydrogen-based e-methanol, a significant step towards a more sustainable energy portfolio.
The primary focus of this expansion effort will be OCI Global’s facility located in Beaumont, Texas. With operations slated to begin in the first quarter of 2025, this site will become the company’s first upstream renewable natural gas (RNG) production facility.
As part of its goal, OCI will need to enter into supply agreements for RNG exceeding 15,00 mmbtu per day – as well as secure the waste and development rights from the City of Beaumont.
Ahmed El-Hoshy, CEO of OCI Global, notes the encouraging signs of regulatory support for both ammonia and methanol in shipping, such as the EU’s FuelEU maritime regulation and the latest IMO strategy bolstering the value of low carbon and green methanol and ammonia relative to fossil fuels.
He added, “Both fuels will need to play an integral role to reach the IMO’s revised targets and OCI Global stands ready to supply them. However, these targets must be supported by practical mechanisms to continue to maintain momentum towards meeting global greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.”
This summer, the first ever green methanol container vessel, owned by AP Moller Maersk, was fuelled with OCI HyFuels green methanol on its maiden voyage from Korea to Copenhagen.
OCI has projected growth in the green methanol market of incremental demand of more than six million tonnes by 2028, due to the adoption of green methanol as a shipping fuel, based on the 225 dual-fuelled methanol vessels now on order.
Green methanol can be produced from green hydrogen. In this process, renewable electricity is used to electrolyse water, splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen produced can then be used in various applications, including the production of green methanol.
When hydrogen is used to synthesise methanol through processes like hydrogenation of CO2 or through gasification of biomass, the resulting methanol is considered green because it doesn’t involve the release of fossil carbon.
Bashir Lebada, CEO of OCI Methanol/HyFuels, concludes, “We continue to see more and more realisation that methanol is the transportation sector’s most viable solution and the easiest way to transport and use renewable hydrogen today.”
“It is a solution that is available now and our focus is on continuing to scale technologies, whether through our projects or our supply partners, to ensure that our capacities continue to grow alongside demand.”
Asia-Pacific Industrial Gases Conference 2023
Decarbonisation and how the Asia-Pacific region pragmatically delivers against its sustainability needs in the near-term will be in focus at gasworld’s Asia-Pacific Industrial Gases Conference 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this December.
Join gasworld for its show-stopper 2.5 day event at the Renaissance Hotel & Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia under the theme of Delivering On the Promise of Growth.
Taking place from 5-7 December 2023, the conference will tackle China’s clean energy and industrial gas build-out, the hydrogen society in the APAC region, the practical means of delivering decarbonisation in emerging economies in the short-term, the economic climate in Asia-Pacific and the local industrial gas markets, electronics and specialty gases in Southeast Asia, and so much more besides.
To attend, sponsor and for more information, visit www.gasworldconferences.com
