Federal Minister of Transport Volker Wissing inaugurated the pilot plant for the "Leuna100" project at the Leuna Chemical Park. According to the responsible research consortium, it is the world's first plant for cost-efficient green methanol production.
At the beginning of this week, stakeholders from politics, business and science met at the chemical park to inaugurate the pilot plant of the "Leuna100" project. The plan is to use a new production process to enable the cost-efficient market ramp-up of green methanol. The hydrogen derivative is to be used primarily in container shipping as a climate-neutral fuel alternative.
The central innovation in methanol production is the electricity-based and load-flexible use of synthesis gas production and homogeneous catalysis. C1's technology enables low-temperature and low-pressure methanol production. This process is made possible by the use of a homogeneous, manganese-based catalyst system, which C1 has developed together with the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis.
The project is being developed by a research consortium consisting of the climate-tech start-up C1 Green Chemicals AG and its partners, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, the DBI-Gastechnologisches Institut gGmbH Freiberg and the Technical University of Berlin.
Green methanol production
The basis for the production of green methanol is a synthesis gas made from carbon monoxide and green hydrogen. Green methanol production in the "Leuna100" project consists of three steps:
- The so-called synthesis gas production
- Methanol production
- Purification of the raw methanol produced
Two different technologies for the CO2-based production of synthesis gas are coupled in the pilot plant: Fraunhofer UMSICHT is supplying a new low-temperature co-electrolysis system and DBI - Gastechnologisches Institut gGmbH Freiberg is using a reverse water gas shift system. C1 supplied the new catalyst and the specially developed reactor for the homogeneous catalysis of methanol, Fraunhofer IWES is providing the site and infrastructure in the Hydrogen Lab Leuna and evaluating load flexibility, and TU Berlin is developing a load-flexible operating concept based on a dynamic overall process model.
The project started in August 2023 and is being funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs (BMDV) with a total of €10.4 million over the next three years. Prof. Dr. Matthias Beller's working group from the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT) in Rostock is supporting the project as a research partner.
