VINACHEM

Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical has brought on stream a pilot facility for producing methanol from carbon dioxide (CO₂) at its manufacturing complex in Ehime prefecture.

“The company aims to complete the demonstration of this technology by 2028, as well as start commercial production using the new process and license the technology to other companies in the 2030s”, the Japanese producer said in a statement on Tuesday.

Details on investments and capacity of the plant built at Ehime Works in Niihama City were not disclosed.

The pilot plant will use CO₂ to produce methanol – one of the carbon capture and utilization (CCU) processes being adopted by Sumitomo to achieve a circular economy.

Sumitomo Chemical said that it was able to resolve issues with conventional CO₂-to-methanol conversion by leveraging on the internal condensation reactor (ICR) being developed by Japanese professor Koji Omata of Shimane University.

The issues are low yield and catalyst degradation caused by byproduct water, it said.

The ICR enables the condensation and separation of methanol and water within the reactor, which is impossible with conventional technologies.

This helps to improve yield, downsize equipment, and achieve higher energy efficiency, while it is also expected to prevent catalyst degradation, Sumitomo said.

The CO₂-to-methanol demo plant was built with the support of Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) Green Innovation (GI) Fund, it said.   – ICIS –