Methanol

Danish shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk A/S plans to roll out the first of eight large container vessels fueled by carbon-neutral methanol in 2024, four years after the company rebuffed liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a low-carbon transition fuel. The vessels are to be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) with nominal capacity of about 16,000…

A Chinese-backed methanol export plant proposed for the Port of Kalama in Washington has effectively been canceled after the sponsor said it would terminate its lease. Northwest Innovation Works (NWIW) notified port officials on Friday that it would end efforts to develop a project. Port officials blamed the “state’s regulatory and political environment for killing…

Canadian utilities are starting trials of green uses for a natural gas substitute, hydrogen, that has to date chiefly served the Alberta oilsands production often criticized by environmentalists. In the 2021-22 heating season, household blends of hydrogen and gas are scheduled to enter field tests in Ontario and Alberta residential fuel markets. A Quebec variation…

After a third environmental assessment, the Washington Department of Ecology has denied a shoreline permit for a China-backed, $2 billion-plus natural gas-fed methanol plant that would be sited along the Columbia River. Project sponsor Northwest Innovation Works (NWIW) has until Feb. 9 to appeal the ruling made last Tuesday. Chief Development Officer Vee Godley said…

Environmental groups and Chinese-backed sponsors of a natural gas-fueled methanol production and export project in Washington are knocking heads after a district court late last month voided some federal permits for the project.  The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington referred the permits back to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for…

A two-year research project with the aim of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from an industrial source and turning it into methanol has received a $300,000 federal grant.

With fuel supplied by abundant Lower 48 natural gas, Methanex Corp. has sanctioned a 1.8 million metric ton/year (mmty) methanol plant in Geismar, LA, adjacent to its two existing facilities.

Nearly three years to the day after giving final authorization for the project, FERC has granted Northwest Pipeline LLC an additional year to complete construction of a short natural gas pipeline lateral to serve a proposed methanol production facility in the Pacific Northwest.

An Alberta government subsidy program lured its third industrial customer for natural gas into construction Wednesday, when Nauticol Energy committed to build a C$2 billion ($1.5 billion) methanol plant.