A pilot plant demonstration of Direct Air Capture (DAC) of atmospheric CO2, as the crucial first step to synthesising carbon neutral methanol as a green marine fuel.

Methanol has great potential as a green fuel for maritime use.

Several shipping lines have been considering methanol as an green alternative to the polluting diesel fuel currently used in most maritime engines but to date have used methanol synthesised from fossil fuels. While fossil sourced methanol is a cleaner burning fuel than diesel in that it produces no particulate matter to pollute the atmosphere, it still contributes new CO2 into the atmosphere thereby adding to Climate Change.

Methanol's potential will be best recognised if it can be synthesised from carbon dioxide that is directly captured from the air together with hydrogen made by the electrolysis of water. If these processes are driven by renewable electricity then the methanol becomes a carbon neutral fuel . That is, on combustion of the fuel, the CO2 is simply cycled around the atmosphere and does not add any new CO2 to increase the problems of Climate Change. In the context of a transport fuel, the carbon neutral methanol concept is equivalent to a zero carbon one.

However, the first step in achieving carbon neutral methanol is to develop a method of direct air capture (DAC) of CO2 that is economically viable and can be carried at on an industrial scale. This is what our project will achieve. We will use a 'scrubber' column to remove the CO2 from the air into an alkaline solution. This solution will be passed into a modified electrolyser which releases the CO2 as a gas and also produces one third of the required hydrogen.

Very importantly, the project seeks to determine the energy cost of the capture and release of the CO2 and the cost of the hydrogen that is required. Direct Air Capture methods of CO2 are in their early stages of development. We have plans to further modify the electrolyser so that all the hydrogen need can be co-produced which will lower the energy cost significantly.

While in the first instance, the target market for the DAC CO2 will be the synthesis of carbon neutral methanol as a carbon neutral replacement fuel for fossil diesel in commercial shipping, a successful DAC project will open the way to being able to also synthesise petrol and aviation fuel in a carbon neutral manner.