GENA Solutions: Total renewable and low-carbon methanol project pipeline rises from 59.6 to 61 Mt by 2031

The Methanol Institute recently shared with Manifold Times the renewable and low-carbon methanol project pipeline April 2026 release produced by GENA Solutions Oy.

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 highlights from GENA’s April 2026 Methanol release are as follows:

• Six renewable methanol projects in China, with a total capacity of 1.9 Mt, held groundbreaking ceremonies over the past month. However, our analysis shows that three of them are not ready to start construction soon.
• Eight new projects were added to Project Navigator, while eight frozen projects were excluded. Due to the larger average capacity of the new projects, the project pipeline increased by 1.4 Mt month on month.
• As of the end of April 2026, Project Navigator tracks 281 renewable and low-carbon methanol projects, representing 61 Mt of capacity by 2031, including 24.9 Mt of e-methanol, 25 Mt of biomethanol, and 11.2 Mt of low-carbon methanol.
• China and Europe are the most active centers globally for renewable methanol industry development, together accounting for about 82% of the project pipeline. China accounts for about 30 Mt, while Europe accounts for 11 Mt.
• In the medium-term perspective, renewable methanol capacity could grow from 0.9 Mt in 2025 to about 1.5 Mt in 2026 and 2.2–2.4 Mt in 2027.
• In the longer-term perspective, considering project development progress and possible market development scenarios, GENA estimates that global renewable methanol capacity could range from 5 Mt to 12 Mt by 2030.

Note: The full article can be viewed here.

Photo credit: GENA Solutions
Published: 4 May, 2026