The Netherlands – Avantium Catalysis received €291,000 from the PROVE IT consortium to support the reduction of greenhouse gas emission within the chemical industry. In this 3-year project, Avantium’s Flowrence technology will be used to optimise a proven process for catalytically converting off-gas CO2 into methanol – another significant contribution towards the circular economy.
Industry must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming. Technology to capture CO2 exists. This can be introduced competitively if the captured CO2 can be put to use. Methanol production could provide the answer. This comes with a big if: existing CO2-to-methanol pathways should become more efficient. That is what PROVE IT intends to realize.
Avantium’s Flowrence platform offers swiftly progress through early discovery, research, process optimization and commercial evaluation. The high-throughput catalyst testing system will help ISPT to optimise catalysts for converting offgas CO2 into methanol.
Methanol
Methanol is a much used chemical building-block. It is widely applied for production of various materials, in the Netherlands, including Twente, as well as in many other places. Methanol is currently mainly produced overseas from fossil feedstocks. It is subsequently imported into Europe. Wouldn’t it be better to produce this methanol locally from off-gassed CO2 from industry? It would – and sustainable, direct CO2-to-methanol conversion technologies have already been developed. Unfortunately, these proof-of-concept technologies are not yet efficient enough to produce methanol competitively.
CO2 from waste
The CO2-rich industrial off-gases of Twence are the basis for lab tests and process engineering to design an improved sustainable and low carbon-footprint CO2-to-Methanol conversion technology. The CO2 capture and liquefaction installation at Twence has already been tailored to produce the right quality CO2 for that process. PROVE IT uses renewable energy to do this. A large regional market for this sustainably made methanol is guaranteed in Twente, which increases the chances of success.
