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The world鈥檚 is now up and running in China.

Methanol 鈥� a liquid also called wood alcohol 鈥� is used for the production of chemicals such as plastics and as a fuel. It is usually made from coal or natural gas, but making it from waste CO₂ will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

鈥淲e estimate the emissions avoidance to be greater than 500,000 tonnes of CO₂ or equivalent per year,鈥� says 脫mar Freyr Sigurbj枚rnsson of Carbon Recycling International (CRI), the Iceland-based company that developed the technology and designed the plant.

This figure is based on estimates that producing a tonne of methanol from coal typically produces , and also takes into account the emissions associated with the process at the new plant.

The facility in the city of Anyang, run by a company called Shunli, combines CO₂ captured from emissions during the production of lime with hydrogen emitted when coal is heated to make coke for steel production. It can turn 160,000 tonnes of CO₂ into 110,000 tonnes of methanol per year.

Previous demonstration set-ups for producing methanol from CO₂ have only been able to make around 5000 tonnes per year, so the Shunli plant is by far the largest to date. CRI describes it as the first commercial-scale facility.

CRI is already working on , which will recycle CO₂聽from a petrochemical complex in Lianyungang to produce methanol for plastics production.

When used as a fuel, methanol is usually blended with the likes of petrol, but in China . There are also a small but growing number of methanol-powered ships. These produce less sulphur and particulate pollution than those using standard, oil-derived 鈥渂unker fuel鈥�, but don鈥檛 currently produce less greenhouse gas emissions, given that almost all methanol today is made from fossil fuels.

It makes sense to use concentrated sources of waste CO₂ for making methanol rather than capturing it from the air, says Martin Bertau at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Freiberg, Germany, as direct air capture requires a lot of energy. If that concentrated CO₂ came from waste biomass, CO₂ uptake by vegetation would balance out the emissions from burning the methanol, making its use net zero overall. In Germany, municipal waste incineration produces huge amounts of biogenic CO₂ that could be used for making synthetic fuels, says Bertau.

Around the world, companies are also exploring other ways to produce methanol without using fossil fuels, such as making it from biomethane released by manure. If the 80 projects for making methanol without fossil fuels announced so far go ahead, production capacity will be more than 8 million tonnes by 2027, says Rafik Ammar of , the global trade association for the methanol industry.

While many see green hydrogen as the replacement for fossil fuels in applications where electrification isn鈥檛 possible, green methanol has tremendous advantages, says Bertau. Unlike hydrogen gas, methanol doesn鈥檛 have to be compressed 鈥� which takes energy 鈥� and it has a higher energy density. Methanol is also much easier and safer to store and move around.

鈥淗ydrogen is far more danger-prone in storage and transport,鈥� he says.

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