Plans for Sweden’s First Commercial Scale eMethanol Plant

Liquid Wind, a developmental power-to-fuel company, is moving forward with an ambitious plan to commercialize eMethanol for the shipping and other industries. The company announced that it has selected the engineering and construction company Worley to design Liquid Wind’s first commercial-scale eMethanol facility to be located in northern Sweden.

To be located 300 miles north of Stockholm, in the city of Örnsköldsvik on the Gulf of Bothnia, plans call for the facility to produce 50,000 tons of renewable methanol annually. For feedstock, the facility will use biogenic carbon dioxide from a biomass-fired power plant and combine it with green hydrogen, made from renewable electricity and water, to produce eMethanol.

“Synthetic fuels will play a significant role in the future of transportation and the decarbonization of several other industries,” said Bradley Andrews, President at Worley. “We are committed to delivering a more sustainable world, and we look forward to helping Liquid Wind achieve its sustainability goals and ambitions to bring renewable methanol to market at scale.”

The new facility is the first in Liquid Winds’ plans to develop a network of 500 plants by 2050 to meet anticipated demand and achieve the scale needed to reduce carbon emissions significantly. Working with Worley, the focus will be on designing operations for scalability through intelligent replication of facilities. Worley will use its design and construction experience to develop a standardized design concept that can be replicated and utilized in Liquid Wind’s future developments.

“Worley has extensive, relevant experience, and we are confident it will be a valuable partner in developing standardized and replicable eMethanol facilities,” said Claes Fredriksson, CEO and Founder at Liquid Wind. “Its experience with a modular approach will support in keeping costs down and increasing our speed to market. As well as enabling the rapid replication of facilities, which is needed to meet the growing demand for carbon-neutral liquid fuel”.

According to the company, in addition to the uses for the alternative fuel for the maritime industry, eMethanol can be used as a building block in the production of other sustainable chemicals, including acetic acid, formaldehyde, and olefins, and contribute to the decarbonization of industries such as adhesives, solvents, and plastics.