The Euro-Japanese Laurelin project, to develop innovative technologies to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) into renewable methanol, is completing the assembly of three advanced chemical reactor demonstrators, to test three different CO₂ conversion technologies. The project has been running for a year, and is funded by the European Union’s (EU’s) Horizon 2020 programme and the Japan Science and Technology Agency. It involves research organisations, universities and small and medium-sized enterprises in EU member States Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, plus Japan and the UK.

“Renewable methanol has an impressive potential to help decarbonising the transport sector,” pointed out Laurelin technical coordinator Adolfo Benedito Borrás. “It can cut CO₂ emissions by up to 95%, reduce [nitrogen oxide] emissions by up to 80%, and completely eliminate [sulphur oxides] and particulate matter emissions. It is a promising technology that can play an important role in making Europe the first climate-neutral continent.”

Within the EU, for example, the transport sector accounts for more than 25% of total greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Renewable methanol could supply the sector with a major source of green energy.

CO₂ can already be converted into methanol, using a process known as hydrogenation (which involves creating a chemical reaction between hydrogen molecules [H₂] and the CO₂ molecules, producing methanol). But this process currently has severe limitations. It also consumes a lot of energy and is expensive. As CO₂ is usually ‘unreactive’, hydrogenation requires the use of a catalyst.     

Part of project Laurelin is the development of new catalyst systems which will cut the energy required for hydrogenation and thereby also cut the cost. The researchers are also working on three new reactor technologies which they regard as promising. These are – magnetic induction, microwave, and non-thermal plasma induction. No details of these technologies were released.

“Reducing e-methanol production costs would lead to an increase in the opportunities to use it as fuel,” highlighted Tokyo Institute Department of Chemical Science and Engineering Professor Teruoki Tago. “This would directly benefit society thanks to the reduction in [GHG] emissions and costs, creating further jobs and wealth.”

The three demonstration reactors will be fine-tuned over the next several weeks, including by increasing their operating pressures. The project teams will test more than 100 samples of new catalysts. These test results will be compared with the results obtained using conventional thermal hydrogenation. The ultimate aim is to develop a new, economically competitive and efficient means of producing methanol from CO₂ on an industrial scale. The Laurelin project has another three years to run.