Renewable methanol could play important role in decarbonising German industry – report
Clean Energy Wire
Methanol derived from green hydrogen could play an important role in Germany’s transition to a decarbonised economy, a paper from the German Energy Agency (dena) has found. The compound, which is key in the chemical industry, could help Germany overcome limits to its own hydrogen production in the future, helping the country both to meet its demand for the green fuel, and provide a base material for decarbonised chemicals and for use in the transport sector. The researchers said that methanol possesses several chemical properties which could make it amenable to a wide range of applications across many economic sectors. One key property is that methanol can be transported and stored safely and easily, without the need for further liquefaction or compression. Another important factor is that methanol is already widely used today and can be easily broken down into hydrogen, allowing for multiple uses.
In order to reach its decarbonisation goals, Germany would need to rapidly increase its capacity to produce and import methanol produced from renewable electricity, the researchers argued. Methanol can be produced by combining green hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide. "Hydrogen and its derivatives are crucial for the climate-friendly transformation of industry and transportation," Corinna Enders, chairwoman of dena’s management board, said. "Renewable methanol can form the basis of this transformation process, as almost all chemical base materials can be produced from renewable methanol."
Germany will likely have to import much hydrogen due to comparably unfavourable conditions for renewable electricity. While the short to mid-range transport of hydrogen via pipelines is seen as a viable solution to get renewable electricity-based hydrogen from very sunny or windy locations (for example in northern Africa) to consumption centres in Europe, long-distance transport is contested due to the physical properties of the fuel. Germany’s chemical industry currently consumes around 1.1 million tonnes of methanol annually, most of which is derived from fossil fuels, but forecasts predict this to rise to 23.7 million tonnes by 2045, if more industrial processes are converted to run on renewable methanol, dena wrote in the report.
