Renewable methanol for the chemical industry and transportation
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Volker Kamm
Team Leader, Communications T: +49 30 66 777-622 volker.kamm(at)dena.de
Berlin, Germany, 24 July 2024. dena published its discussion paper entitled ‘Renewable methanol – green basic chemical and import vector for climate-neutral hydrogen and carbon with considerable potential’ today. It found that, due to its chemical and physical properties, methanol is an advantageous hydrogen derivative and can become an important building block for the defossilisation of the chemical industry and transport.
dena’s discussion paper aims to make a constructive contribution to the current debate surrounding the German government’s hydrogen import strategy.
‘Hydrogen and its derivatives are crucial for the climate-friendly transformation of industry and transport. We need to make rapid progress with the new global value chains so that companies have planning security. In this manner, we can also realise an enormous value creation potential for Germany as a business location. The German government’s import strategy must therefore be strengthen quickly. An important role here is played by scaling in production and applications, the development of transport routes and standardisation. Renewable methanol can form the basis for this transformation process, as almost all raw materials in the chemical industry can be produced from renewable methanol. This opens up new opportunities for industry, especially the chemical industry, and transport, while at the same time supporting the German government’s climate protection targets,’ according to Corinna Enders, Chairperson of the Management Board.
If the current production routes are converted to renewable methanol, forecasts assume a Germany-wide methanol requirement of up to 23.7 million metric tons of methanol by 2045, which would correspond to around 150 TWh of hydrogen per year. The chemical industry in Germany currently consumes around 1.1 million metric tons of methanol, which is primarily fossil-based.
Key findings of the discussion paper:
- The paper discusses the energy source and raw material, which is currently largely produced using fossil fuels, in terms of its potential for the energy transition, highlighting production routes, transport options and end applications.
- Methanol can be transported and stored easily and safely without further compression or liquefaction, in contrast to pure hydrogen and other derivatives.
- Methanol already has a wide range of uses today and, if produced from renewable sources, can be used as a raw material for defossilisation in the chemical industry and as a climate-neutral fuel for segments of the transport sector in the future.
- The production of renewable methanol must be scaled up quickly both in Germany and globally. The import of electricity-based methanol should be increasingly considered as a strategic solution.
- It is possible to build on existing infrastructure in some areas; however, further investment (to meet the foreseeable increase in demand) and a targeted transformation strategy for the potential areas of application are necessary.
