Methanol is one of the most critical organic raw materials in modern coal chemical industry and plays a very important role as a basic material support in the chemical industry. 49.84 million tons of methanol will be produced in China in 2020, which will consume more than 6 million tons of hydrogen, which mainly comes from coal to hydrogen and conversion reaction with high carbon emission, if replaced by green hydrogen, it can achieve the purpose of low-carbon methanol production. The current high cost of hydrogen storage and transportation, methanol can also be used as a carrier for green hydrogen, which can reduce the cost of hydrogen storage and transportation. Green methanol is one of the important downstream applications of green hydrogen, whether for the purpose of green hydrogen consumption, low cost hydrogen storage and transportation, or low carbon methanol production and downstream chemical products.
China is the largest producer of methanol in the world, and there are mainly coal-headed routes as well as gas-headed routes for methanol production in China, among which there are three ways to make methanol from coal, namely coal gasification to methanol, coke oven gas to methanol and ammonia cogeneration to methanol. 2020 China's methanol production capacity accounts for about 67% of the world, which is the largest in the world. Due to China's resource characteristics of rich in coal and poor in oil and gas, 81% of methanol production comes from coal, and the share of coal gasification to methanol has been expanding since 2010. The raw material for methanol production abroad is mainly natural gas, which accounts for over 90%.
Source: <China Hydrogen Energy Comprehensive Application Technology and Project Annual Report 2022>
The cost of coal to methanol mainly depends on the coal price, when the coal price is 600 yuan/t, the cost of methanol is 2335 yuan/t. The cost of liquid sunshine mainly depends on the price of green hydrogen, i.e. green electricity price, according to the calculation of Dalian Institute of Chemical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, every reduction of electricity price by 0.1 yuan/kWh, the cost of liquid sunshine methanol will drop 1000 yuan/t, when the green electricity is lower than 0.15 yuan/kWh, liquid sunshine methanol will initially be competitive.
Coal to methanol | Liquid Sunshine Methanol | ||
Coal price (Yuan/ton) | Methanol cost (Yuan/ton) | Renewable energy generation (Yuan/kWh) | Methanol cost (Yuan/ton) |
500 | 2000 | 0.1 | 1600 |
600 | 2335 | 0.2 | 2600 |
700 | 2500 | 0.3 | 3600 |
800 | 2750 | 0.4 | 4600 |
Source: <China Hydrogen Energy Comprehensive Application Technology and Project Annual Report 2022>
The largest downstream market for green methanol is for chemical production, with nearly 78% of China's methanol used for chemical synthesis in 2020, with the main synthesis products being olefins, formaldehyde, acetic acid, MTBE, and dialdehyde, and 18% of methanol used for fuel combustion.
Source: <China Hydrogen Energy Comprehensive Application Technology and Project Annual Report 2022>
Compared with traditional gasoline octane 20-95, methanol fuel has an octane rating of 107-112, which is resistant to explosion and the engine works more smoothly. Secondly, methanol contains half of the mass of oxygen and half of the mass of hydrocarbon elements, which improves the combustion reaction of the engine and increases the energy conversion efficiency during combustion by more than 20% compared to the average energy conversion efficiency based on the calorific value of gasoline.
Methanol is used as fuel mainly for methanol-fueled vehicles (internal combustion engines) as well as ships. China has been piloting methanol-fueled vehicles in Gansu, Guizhou, Shanxi and Shaanxi since 2012, and the market holdings have been nearly 30,000 units so far, and are expected to reach 50,000 units in 2025. At present, although the number of methanol-powered ships is not much, and there are no more than 10 related projects in the world, the feasibility of methanol as a marine fuel has been gradually confirmed. -Jianglong" has been launched.
Compared with green ammonia, green methanol as a fuel has a certain foundation in China, the transformation of terminal equipment is less difficult and costly, and the current downstream demand is also greater; however, green methanol as a carbon-containing fuel, the entire production and combustion process can only play a role in carbon sequestration, lacking the emission reduction capability that green ammonia has.
Methanol is also an excellent carrier of hydrogen energy. Compared with hydrogen, methanol has higher energy density and is safe for storage and transportation, thus it has been rapidly promoted in recent years, such as methanol reforming to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and methanol hydrogen fuel cell power plants. The relevant domestic enterprises are: AIWAYS, Palcan, Co-win Hydrogen Power, More Hydrogen Technology, etc.
At present, the application scale of green methanol is greatly restricted due to the cost of green hydrogen and energy conversion efficiency, etc. In the future, with the maturity of hydrogen production technology and the decline of green power price, green methanol will be given new attributes other than chemical raw materials, and the market space is vast.
