ETFuels aims to boost e-methanol production to meet bunkering demand

UK-based energy startup ETFuels plans to supply 1.4 million mt/year of green methanol for bunkering “on both sides of the Atlantic.”

PHOTO: Illustration of an off-grid renewable energy system. Getty Images

ETFuels' production model integrates electrolysers directly with off-grid wind and solar power installations.

Off-grid renewable energy installations are not connected to electricity grids, so they require battery storage to store excess power. Rather than storing renewable electricity in batteries, ETFuels connects these installations directly to electrolysers for generating green hydrogen.

This eliminates the need for energy storage and saves the cost of installing an electricity grid to power the electrolysers.

The electrolysers generate green hydrogen via water electrolysis. The green hydrogen is then combined with carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce synthetic or e-methanol with zero-emission potential, said ETFuels.

ETFuels claims that this model can be replicated and scaled across multiple supply chains.

“The shipping industry has displayed clear demand signals for green methanol,” ETFuels said, committing to “heed this call, and to deliver competitively priced, scalable and sustainable fuel” to the industry.

Currently, it is building a plant in Southern Spain that will produce around 100,000 mt/year of e-methanol by 2027-28. It will source up to 450,000 mt/year of captured CO2 from CEMEX's Alicante cement plant in Spain for green methanol production.

It confirmed that it has supply agreements with "a number of global shipping companies".

In addition, it plans to develop e-methanol production projects on off-grid wind farms in Northern Lapland, Finland, and solar and wind farms in Texas, USA.

By Konica Bhatt

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