Lava encircles carbon-dioxide-to-methanol pilot plant

Even as volcanic smoke chokes the air around its pilot plant in Iceland, Carbon Recycling International is celebrating a win with the announcement of a third commercial-scale facility in China that will convert green hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide into methanol.

CRI’s Iceland facility runs on CO₂, water, and renewable electricity from the Svartsengi geothermal power station, which is about 40 km southwest of Reykjavik. CRI says the low-carbon energy source allows it to produce 4,000 metric tons (t) of methanol per year with a greenhouse gas footprint just 10–20% that of conventional methanol.

The firm had to evacuate in late November, however, when a 3 km fissure opened up in the earth a few kilometers away and began spewing lava. Satellite photos of the area taken on Nov. 24 show a large field of molten and cooled lava to the north, west, and south of Svartsengi.

Though the lava is still flowing and has destroyed most roads into the area, Icelandic officials expect CRI’s plant, the power station, and an adjacent geothermal spa to survive the eruption.

CRI’s investment in the pilot plant has paid off. The firm recently signed a deal with the Chinese industrial group China Tianying to build a 170,000 t plant in eastern China. The facility will power hydrogen electrolyzers with wind energy and capture CO₂ from a nearby biomass-burning power station, leading to a low or even negative net carbon footprint, the firms say.

China Tianying will own and operate the plant when it comes online in 2025. CRI has licensed two other commercial-scale plants in China: a 100,000 t facility owned by the polymer maker Jiangsu Sailboat and a 110,000 t unit owned by the chemical firm Henan Shuncheng.

Though CRI is developing projects closer to home, in Germany, Sweden, and Norway, CEO Lotte Rosenberg says she sees China as a particularly promising market for renewable energy, hydrogen, and hydrogen derivatives. “With e-methanol, there is a clear demand and lack of supply,” she says. “Furthermore, China is the largest consumer of methanol in the world.”