Thailand’s national upstream company PTTEP and Danish maritime giant AP Moller-Maersk are among six players that have teamed up with the aim of establishing Southeast Asia’s first green e-methanol plant.
The pilot plant with minimum capacity of 50,000 tonnes per annum will be set up in Singapore pending the successful conclusion of feasibility studies by the end of 2022.
The plant will convert captured biogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) into green e-methanol, a low carbon fuel, that could enable a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
PTTEP, AP Moller-Maersk, Air Liquide, Oiltanking Asia Pacific, Kenoil Marine Services and YTL PowerSeraya have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on a green methanol value chain.
The collaboration will commence with feasibility studies on technical and economic aspects of the green e-methanol pilot plant, which are expected to be completed by the end of this year.
PTTEP said the MoU marks a pivotal step towards transforming captured biogenic CO2 and green hydrogen produced from renewable electricity into green e-methanol and making this low carbon fuel commercially accessible for the maritime industry.
“The project has the strong potential to support industry adoption and realisation of climate neutrality goals, making a meaningful contribution to the global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said the Thai company.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore added it welcomes the formation of this industry partnership and its plan to leverage on Singapore’s hub port and research ecosystems to conduct feasibility studies on the set up of a pilot plant and running of bunkering trials on green e-methanol.
Green e-methanol is being considered as one of the contenders for alternate fuel to meet IMO2030/2050 goals, and this project will potentially yield a substantial carbon reduction impact.
