In recent years, as the global climate change and carbon emission issues become increasingly severe, countries have put forward their goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, to achieve low-carbon transition and sustainable development. China also announced in 2020 that it will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. To achieve this goal, China needs to carry out comprehensive innovation and reform in energy structure, energy utilization and energy technology. Among them, green methanol, as a clean, low-carbon and widely used energy source, has attracted more and more attention.

Green methanol refers to methanol synthesized from renewable energy power and carbon dioxide. Methanol is the simplest alcohol compound, with high energy density, easy liquefaction and transportation, and can be directly burned or hydrogenated. The main difference between green methanol and ordinary methanol lies in the different production methods. Green methanol does not rely on fossil fuels, but uses renewable energy power such as solar and wind power to decompose water to produce hydrogen, and reacts with carbon dioxide from industrial emissions or the atmosphere to produce methanol. This process realizes the carbon cycle utilization and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

At present, China has made remarkable progress in the production and application of green methanol. In 2020, China built the world’s first kiloton-scale liquid sunshine synthesis demonstration project in Lanzhou, and successfully tested and completed the achievement appraisal in 2020. The project uses renewable energy power such as wind, light and hydropower to decompose water to produce hydrogen, coupled with carbon dioxide hydrogenation to synthesize methanol. The project is expected to produce about 30,000 tons of green methanol per year, equivalent to reducing about 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

In terms of application, green methanol can be used as an efficient hydrogen carrier to support the hydrogen energy industry. Hydrogen energy is a clean, efficient and renewable energy source, known as the “energy of the future”. China has formulated the “Medium and Long-term Development Plan for Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)”, which will accelerate the development of the whole chain of hydrogen energy “production-storage-transportation-use”, and make hydrogen energy an important component of the future national energy system and an important carrier for the green and low-carbon transformation of energy end-use. Green methanol can produce high-purity hydrogen by reforming, cracking, partial oxidation and other technologies, to provide clean energy for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, generators and other devices. Compared with liquid hydrogen, green methanol has higher hydrogen storage density, lower storage and transportation costs and higher safety. The Beijing Winter Olympics will demonstrate the operation of more than 1,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and equip more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations. These vehicles will use green hydrogen produced by liquid sunshine methanol reforming.

In addition, green methanol can also be used directly as a fuel to drive internal combustion engines or fuel cells, to achieve low-carbon emissions and replace traditional fossil fuels such as gasoline and diesel. China has organized pilot operation and promotion of methanol vehicles in 10 cities in 5 provinces including Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shanghai, Gansu and Guizhou. Among them, methanol range-extended electric vehicles and methanol fuel cell vehicles are explicitly mentioned. Methanol vehicles have the advantages of low cost, low emission and good performance, and are one of the important directions for the transformation and upgrading of China’s automobile industry. Green methanol can also be used as marine fuel, replacing high-sulfur oil and other highly polluting marine oils. COSCO Shipping, CMA CGM and Shanghai Port Group jointly cooperate to purchase, supply and deliver green methanol fuel for the future dual-fuel methanol fleet of CMA CGM and COSCO Shipping at major Chinese ports, including Shanghai Port.

In other aspects, green methanol also has a wide range of application prospects. For example, in the industrial field, China has established a chemical product production system based on methanol as raw material, including formaldehyde, dimethyl ether, ethylene, propylene and so on. These products can be further transformed into daily necessities such as plastics, fibers and coatings. If green methanol is used as raw material, the carbon footprint of these products can be greatly reduced. In the construction field, China has developed a distributed energy system based on methanol reforming hydrogen fuel cell. The system can use methanol to provide the building with the required electricity and heat, achieve cogeneration of heat and power, and improve energy utilization efficiency. The system can also use waste heat to heat lithium batteries, so that lithium batteries can work normally at low temperature. In the power sector, China has built the first megawatt-level hydrogen energy storage project and successfully achieved grid-connected power generation in 2022. The project uses renewable energy power to electrolyze water to produce hydrogen and store it in high-pressure gas state. During peak electricity demand, the stored hydrogen is used to generate electricity through fuel cells or hydrogen gas turbines and feed into the public grid. The project can realize the spatial and temporal transfer of energy and promote the regional balance of energy supply and consumption in China.

In summary, green methanol has already formed a certain scale in China’s current market, and has a bright future. The application of green methanol in various fields also shows its characteristics of clean, low-carbon, efficient, flexible and safe. Green methanol is expected to become one of the important paths for China to achieve the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.