It may be that over the next few decades the most important feedstock for SAF will not be ethanol, or plant oils, but methanol. So it was big news last year when ExxonMobil announced a methanol-to-SAF technology, and even bigger news just now as Honeywell UOP announces a rival technology and a big customer with […]
It may be that over the next few decades the most important feedstock for SAF will not be ethanol, or plant oils, but methanol. So it was big news last year when ExxonMobil announced a methanol-to-SAF technology, and even bigger news just now as Honeywell UOP announces a rival technology and a big customer with a tasty deployment timeline. Specifically, eFuels leader HIF Global intends to deploy the new technology to produce eSAF at its second U.S. eFuels facility. The HIF eSAF project is expected to be the world's largest eSAF facility, recycling approximately 2 million tons of captured CO 2 to make approximately 11,000 barrels per day of eSAF by 2030, or just shy of 170 million gallons per year. The boldest claim? An 88 percent reduction in GHGs, that's based on CO2 'captured from biomass processing' and green hydrogen. Why methanol? For observers in Digestville and elsewhere, if the question is "why methanol?" the answer is "The many effective ways to make it. Most well-known and long-proven. The many applications." SAF is a new one, and we think the biggest of all. How many ways to make methanol? One pathway is methanol synthesis, start with carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and with the reverse water gas shift reaction you can make carbon monoxide and water, then hydrogenate the carbon monoxide to methanol. A second pathway is direct conversion of carbon dioxide and hydrogen to methanol — and CRI has been operating a plant in Iceland since 2012 with a 4000 ton per year (123 million gallons) plant since 2012. There's methanol made from methane. And those 38 percent methanol yields from destructive distillation of wood come to mind. There's Enerkem's MSW-to-methanol. What about methanol from gasified corn stalks? The CO2 to methanol route is getting the most attention right now, of course. As the DOE's Jay Fitzgerald put it, using the carbon we have to make the carbon we need. But look beyond the competitive edge of any single pathway. Look at the number of…