Nordic trio to build e-methanol plant in Finland

Swedish circular carbon energy firm Liquid Wind and Finland-based Kanteleen Voima and Piipsan Tuulivoima aim to build an e-methanol plant in Finland's Haapavesi region.

PHOTO: 3D blueprint of NordFuel's biorefinery project in Haapavesi, Finland. NordFuel

Kanteleen Voima is the owner of biofuel producer NordFuel and Piipsan Tuulivoima is a wind power producer.

E-methanol, or synthetic methanol, is produced using 100% biogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) and green hydrogen. The biogenic CO2 is typically captured through either bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) or through direct air capture (DAC). This fuel is virtually free of greenhouse gases and can cut a vessel's CO2 emissions by 95% compared to conventional marine fuels on a well-to-wake basis.

The plant will be built next to NordFuel's planned biorefinery. Biogenic CO2 emitted from the biorefinery will be used as feedstock in e-methanol production, Matti Asikainen, chief executive of NordFuel confirmed.

NordFuel expects to capture 65,000 mt/year of "pure" CO2 from its Haapavesi biorefinery, according to its website. 

Piipsan Tuulivoima will build and operate an onshore wind park to power the plant.

“The electrofuel produced in Haapavesi will be used to decarbonize hard-to-abate industries like shipping; with the facility in Finland, we are one step closer to seeing a world without dependency on fossil fuels,” said Liquid Wind’s chief executive, Claes Fredriksson.

Liquid Wind is developing modular e-methanol production facilities - called Core eMethanol Plants (CMP) – that are ready-to-build units, each with a nominal production capacity of 100,000 mt/year.

In November, it announced plans to build 10 such modular e-methanol plants in the Nordics by 2027, with the goal of building 80 by 2030. In total, 80 plants will produce 8 million mt/year of e-methanol for the shipping industry.

By Konica Bhatt

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