MEFCO₂
CO₂-TO-METHANOL PRODUCTION IN GERMANY
Funded under the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Program, MefCO₂ was a technology development project in operation from 2014-2019. MefCO₂ applied CRI’s Emissions-to-Liquids (ETL) technology to produce methanol from CO₂ emissions derived from a thermal power plant and hydrogen generated by electrolysis. The project’s key objective was to utilise ordinarily emitted greenhouse gas CO₂ and hydrogen produced from surplus electrical energy into a widely-usable platform chemical, methanol. In verifying the adaptability of the scalable modular technology, MefCO₂ aimed to demonstrate mitigation of exhaust CO₂ and further penetration of renewables by addressing curtailment of renewable electricity.
Following delivery to the RWE Niederaussem thermal powerplant and integration with subsystems the intermediate-scale CO₂-to-methanol production unit started production in early May 2019. During its time in operation, the system performed flawlessly, successfully demonstrating the capability of the ETL system to operate with fluctuating supply of electricity from wind and solar sources and heterogeneous CO₂ sources.
The production output of 1 ton per day was delivered to a waste water treatment facility upon the project’s completion.
Key facts
11 million EUR Horizon 2020 grant
CO₂ Utilisation in German thermal powerplant
Operated in 2019
ETL Adaptability to heterogenous CO₂ sources
ETL Load-following capability for efficiency enhancement in renewable power generation
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 637016.
