Timothy Chan, Assistant Director of Government & Public Affairs Asia & Middle East at Methanol Institute
As countries around the world are making strides to carve a path to sustainable and carbon-neutral economies, India’s energy landscape is evolving with a significant push to explore alternative fuels. As one of the most versatile commodities, methanol is a viable future energy source that can play a pivotal role in the country’s energy transition.
Methanol is a clean-burning fuel that significantly reduces emissions of sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter. It has the ability to be produced from diverse feedstocks including natural gas, renewable sources such as municipal solid waste (MSW), agricultural residue, and captured carbon dioxide with green hydrogen. Renewable methanol produced from sustainable feedstocks cuts carbon dioxide emissions by up to 95%, reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 80%, and eliminates sulfur oxide and particulate matter emissions. Hard to abate industries including shipping and chemicals have been exploring renewable methanol as a promising solution for reducing GHG emissions. Industries such as steel, cement, and power utility can reduce their emissions by producing renewable methanol from carbon dioxide emissions captured at their facilities. Tata Steel Europe has been using carbon emissions to produce e-methanol. Tata SteelIndia plans to use the larger carbon capture units in the future and utilize the carbon dioxide to produce methanol and other products. In 2021, NTPC set up a CO2 to methanol demonstration plant at NTPC Vindhyachal and is looking to invest in green fuels like renewable methanol to be produced at renewable energy-powered units. Renewable methanol has the potential to expand the country’s energy capacity and contribute towards its climate goals.
As an emerging energy product, methanol is deployed to fuel cars, trucks, marine vessels, boilers, cookstoves, and kilns. Interestingly, with the highest hydrogen to carbon ratio of any liquid fuel, it is widely recognized as a superior hydrogen carrier. Methanol has a long history of being utilized as a road transport fuel due to its efficient combustion, ease of distribution, and global availability. Countries around the world including Germany, Italy, UK, Sweden, Australia, Israel, Denmark, China, USA, etc,.have experience with methanol-gasoline blends at low (3-5%), mid (15-30%), and high (50-100%) volume percentages. India is no exception to this pool of countries with methanol vehicles trials. In 2018, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has set standards for M15 (15% methanol with 85% gasoline) on gasoline engines. In October 2021, ARAI incollaboration with automotive companies such as Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, TVS, and Honda Motorcycle and Scooterflagged offM15 two-wheelers as part of the M15 assessment programorganized by NITI Aayog.To promote clean cooking initiatives, the state government of Assam along with Assam Petrochemicals (APL) launched the Methanol Cooking Fuel Program to roll out methanol cookstoves to APL colony residents. The Indian military is very well versed with the benefits of methanol fuel cells to provide a reliable source of power for their off-grid applications at remote and high altitudes. With such diverse applications, methanol could support the powering of different industries and sectors of the economy.
Methanol offers significant advantages to enable a smoother energy transition. Being liquid at ambient temperature, methanol facilitates easy storage and transportation that contributes to the simplicity of its logistics. It is a widely traded commodity that leverages existing supply chains which are mature and do not entail capital-intensive infrastructure for its transportation and storage. It is an energy-efficient fuel that does not require energy-intensive processes and infrastructures like high pressure or cryogenic equipment for its storage. Additionally, the high intermittency of renewable energy sources is a challenge when there is a lack of appropriate energy storage technologies, particularly for renewable electricity. Power-to-liquid technologies offer a promising solution, where excess supplies of renewable electricity can be stored in the form of methanol. This generates greater economic value in renewable energy assets and de-risks the investments needed to increase the country’s renewable energy capacity.Most importantly it reduces the carbon footprint and delivers immediate emission reductions thatpresenta solution and offers a pathway for economies to decarbonize now.
It is the need of the hour for the country to recognize and encourage alternative fuels such as methanol which is a solution that can be readily adopted for a variety of applications today.
