Mitsui Chemicals Develops Process to Produce Methanol from Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Mitsui Chemicals Incorporated (TYO:4183) (Tokyo, Japan) has announced the development of a process that turns carbon dioxide into methanol. The company plans to invest about $13.6 million to develop the demonstration plant adjacent to its Osaka facilities.

The process could make a significant contribution to the fight against global warming and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Both carbon dioxide and hydrogen are classified as greenhouse gases, and the process is seen as a valuable alternative to the current methods of coping with such gases, including underground sequestration.

Mitsui's process involves the collection of carbon dioxide and hydrogen from facilities such as oil refineries, steel mills or thermal power plants. The gases are then mixed and applied to a catalyst to produce methanol. The process has the potential to provide an alternative, low-emission fuel from byproducts of the enormous deposits of coal in the Asian region.

Methanol is a versatile product that can be used in a variety of industries, as well as an alternative power source. When converted to formaldehyde, it is widely used to produce resins, paints, plywood adhesives, plastics and even explosives.

The demonstration plant at Osaka has been in operation for about 2,000 hours. It has the capacity to produce 100 tons per year of methanol from between 150 to 160 tons of carbon dioxide produced by the adjacent petrochemical factory. Mitsui plans to run the plant for at least 8,000 hours to prove the viability of the catalyst and the process.

Although the pilot plant has produced significant quantities of methanol, the costs involved are at least twice those associated with methanol production, based on conventional processes from natural gas, particularly in countries which have large and relatively cheap supplies of natural gas.

However, Mitsui's Senior Managing Director, Yoshiyuki Funakoshi, expects that the process will become more economically viable in the future. "Methane prices will likely rise in the long term as emerging economies grow, and hydrogen prices are very different from location to location," he stated. "It will also depend on carbon credit prices."

This latter point was emphasized by Kazuhiro Kumakubo, an analyst with the Mizuho Information and Research Institute (Tokyo), which is a member of the Mizuho Financial Group Incorporated (NYSE:MFG) (Tokyo, Japan), which indicated that the cost of carbon credits would play a large part in the economic future of the technology.

The process has raised considerable interest, with about 20 gas-producing nations contacting Mitsui for more information on the technology. According to Funakoshi, "they would prefer to export gas rather than use it domestically to make methanol."

Funakoshi also indicated that Mitsui was already in discussions with potential partners, including the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) (Beijing, China) and the government of Singapore about possible joint venture projects.

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