GENA Solutions: Total renewable and low-carbon methanol project pipeline rises from 46.3 to 47.2 Mt by 2030

Methanol

Published Mon, 5th May 2025
by Admin

Information shared by the Methanol Institute meant to assist the maritime industry in the adoption of methanol as a mainstream marine fuel heading into IMO 2030/2050.

GENA Solutions: Total renewable and low-carbon methanol project pipeline rises from 46.3 to 47.2 Mt by 2030

The Methanol Institute recently shared with Manifold Times the renewable and low-carbon methanol project pipeline April 2025 release produced by GENA Solutions Oy (Green Energy Analytics).

Information from the release is meant to provide the bunkering publication’s readers with insight on renewable methanol availability, and to assist the maritime industry in the adoption of methanol as a mainstream marine fuel heading into IMO 2030/2050.

Key takeaways of the April 2025 release are as follows:

The renewable methanol project pipeline increased from 36.2 Mt in March 2025 to 37.1 Mt in April 2025 (+0.9 Mt). The total renewable and low-carbon methanol project pipeline reached 47.2 Mt. Five projects were added in the April release, including two in Europe, two in China, and one in Latin America.
As of April 2025, GENA tracks 131 e-methanol plants and projects with a total capacity of 20.6 Mt, 89 biomethanol plants and projects with a total capacity of 16.5 Mt, and 16 low-carbon methanol plants and projects with a total capacity of 10.1 Mt.
Seventy-five projects with a total capacity of 15.2 Mt plan to use biomass or waste gasification to produce methanol. This includes 37 hybrid projects (9.2 Mt) that combine syngas from gasification with renewable hydrogen from electrolysis. The first industrial-scale hybrid projects are expected to become operational in 2025.
About 56% of gasification projects use agricultural residues as the main feedstock, 15% use forestry residues, 15% use RDF/SRF, and the remaining projects use mixed feedstocks.
If operating at full capacity, all renewable methanol projects could consume up to 4.9 Mt of renewable hydrogen—4 Mt in e-methanol and 0.9 Mt in hybrid biomethanol About 97% of methanol projects opt to produce hydrogen captively.
At full capacity, renewable and low-carbon methanol projects could utilize up to 29.8 Mt of CO₂.
The total after FID renewable methanol capacity, including operational facilities and projects under construction, has reached 3.5 Mt. Additionally, after FID low-carbon methanol capacity stands at 0.5 Mt. About 75% of biomethanol and 85% of e-methanol projects are still in the feasibility or pre-feasibility stages.
By 2030, renewable methanol capacity could reach 7.2 Mt in the Advanced Projects scenario, 13.6 Mt in the Higher Probability Projects scenario, and 3.5 Mt in the After-FID Projects scenario.