Johnson Matthey (JM), a global pioneer in renewable technology, particularly those vital for sustainable fuels and chemicals, is going to supply cutting-edge technologies, facilities, and consulting services to the Haru Oni project in Patagonia, Chile, the world’s first methanol plant to harvest wind energy.
The Haru Oni initiative, built by Siemens Energy in collaboration with Johnson Matthey and several other major companies, including Porsche, will be the world’s first interconnected and industrial large-scale plant producing climate neutral e-methanol and e-gasoline. Rising e-fuel production is a crucial phase in the energy transition because e-fuels work similarly to gasoline and diesel but are made using renewable energy.
JM will licence methanol technologies and supply the engineering, catalyst, and facilities for the pioneering project as a solutions supplier for syngas decarbonisation. For the conversion to e-methanol, the JM-designed device would use ambient carbon dioxide as feedstock.
This CO2 can be recovered by direct air capture and combined with green hydrogen (produced through water proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis). Using JM’s most recent catalyst, the pilot unit will show JM’s leadership in renewable chemicals and fuels, as well as its contribution to decarbonisation and sustainability.
In Haru Oni’s initial pilot phase, the unit will be capable of producing around 900,000 litres per year of e-methanol as early as 2022. In two further phases, capacity is then to be increased to about 55 million litres of e-fuels a year by 2024, and around 550 million litres of e-fuels by 2026, sufficient for about 220,000 gasoline vehicles at 50 litres use per week.
“We are very excited to be collaborating again with Siemens Energy for this pioneering project to convert wind energy into clean, green, net-zero chemicals and fuels for a cleaner, healthier world. It is the culmination of two years’ work, and testament to their confidence in JM’s engineering expertise and ability to successfully design and help deliver methanol plants at all scales and feedstocks. We are looking forward to this first phase of the project concluding successfully and collaborating on the next ambitious phases.”
John Gordon, Managing Director, Johnson Matthey
