OCI Global announced plans to double its green methanol production capacity to approximately 400,000 metric tons per year, due to the growing demand for green methanol from numerous high emissions industries, including road transport, shipping and industrial.
The scale-up plans include entering into supply agreements for renewable natural gas (RNG) exceeding 15,000 mmbtu per day – as well as securing the waste and development rights from the City of Beaumont.
According to OCI, this is the company’s first upstream RNG production facility and production is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2025. As well as reducing carbon dioxide emissions, obtaining biogas from landfill has the benefit of using methane – which over a 20-year period, has a global warming potential that is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide – that would otherwise escape and accelerate global warming.
OCI currently has the capacity to produce up to 200,000 metric tons of green methanol. Offtakers include the road fuels market, where it is used as a fuel-blend to reduce emissions from petrol, as a building block in a range of industrial applications; and most recently, as a fuel for shipping.
Moreover, OCI has projected growth in the green methanol market of incremental demand of more than 6 million tonnes by 2028.
Ahmed El-Hoshy, CEO of OCI Global, commented, “We are seeing encouraging signs with 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. It is clear that both fuels will need to play an integral role to reach the IMO’s revised targets and OCI Global stands ready to supply them.”
