In Denmark, one of Europe’s largest Power-to-Liquids (PtL) projects to date is nearing completion. Once fully operational, European Energy’s Kassø Power-to-X (PtX) plant will have the capacity to produce around 42,000 tonnes per annum of electro-methanol (e-methanol) along with district heating to the town of Åbenrå. As a first-of-its-kind project, it is generating wide spread interest and has already pioneered a trail that will prove benefical to other e-methanol projects as Bioenergy International discovers on a visit to Kassø.
Founded in 2004, and headquartered in Denmark, European Energy A/S is a pronounced international wind- and solar power project developer with activities in the entire value chain.
Present in 28 countries, with a development pipeline exceeding 60 GW, the company is rapidly emerging as a forerunner in the global “Power-to-X” (PtX) space.
Indeed, it has already produced the first batch of green hydrogen at the Måde PtX pilot plant outside Esbjerg. Located at the Vindtestcenter Måde, the Måde PtX unit comprises three electrolyzers with a combined capacity of 12 MW operating mainly on intermittent wind power.
According to the 2023 annual report, its “high-value portfolio” comprised 4.9 GW of power capacity of which 1 GW was operational, another 900 MW was under construction, and the balance was under project structuring.
Also in 2023, the company divested 1.1 GW of project capacity – at a seemingly healthy average margin one might add – of which 400 MW were operational, known as commercial operation date (COD) sales, and the remainder as ready-to-build (RTB) projects.
Milestone investment and divestment
Last year marked several significant milestones for European Energy – the inauguration in May 2023 of its Solar Park Kassø (SPK) in Hjorderup, Åbenrå municipality in southeast Jutland, and the simultaneous groundbreaking of the Kassø PtX project that is being built in close proximity to SPK.
The idea is that the latter would use intermittent renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen via electrolysis of water, react this with captured biogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce e-methanol at scale, and supply heat for district heating while providing power grid balancing services.
With a design capacity of up to 42,000 tonnes per annum of e-methanol, this will be used as marine- and road transportation fuels as well as a biochemical replacement for fossil-derived methanol.
The two projects, SPK and Kassø PtX, also figure in the company’s divestment numbers as of September 2023, Japanese “sogo shosha” Mitsui & Co. Ltd joined as co-owner by acquiring a 49 percent stake in Kassø MidCo ApS, the holding company for SPK and Kassø PtX.
This first Power-to-X divestment through a partnership with Mitsui on our Kassø e-methanol plant is the first proof of profitability of our Power-to-X activities, remarked Jens-Peter Zink, Deputy CEO of European Energy during the 2023 annual report presentation at the end of February this year.
European Energy has since completed a transaction with Mitsubishi HC Capital, in which Mitsubishi HC Capital acquires a 20 percent stake in European Energy and injects approximately EUR 700 million into the company as new equity.
The capital injection more than triples our equity, offering us increased opportunities to accelerate our business. With our collaboration with Mitsubishi HC Capital, we will be able to further accelerate our growth and strengthen our impact in the fight against climate change, said Knud Erik Andersen, CEO and co-founder of European Energy after receiving regulatory approval for the deal.
This capital boost will no doubt speed things up for European Energy, not least other parallel PtX projects in Denmark and elsewhere.
Power balance and price optimization
The original idea would seem to still hold true – green electricity from the nearby 304 MWp Solar Park Kassø will power the 54 MW of electrolyzer capacity at the Kassø PtX plant when it comes online.
Siemens Energy has designed, supplied, and will commission the electrolysis system at Kassø PtX.
The system consists of three 17.5 MW full array lines Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolysis products including transformers, rectifiers, distributed control system (DCS) plus the equipment to produce demineralized water.
To manage power intermittency and optimize pricing, Solar Park Kassø has secured a revised optimization agreement with energy trader Danske Commodities, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Norwegian oil, gas, and energy major Equinor, with which it already had an agreement regarding the solar park.
With the extended agreement, Danske Commodities will manage both the power output from the solar park and the power demand of the Kassø PtX facility.
Through the optimization agreement, SPK and Danske Commodities optimize the power production and consumption of the Kassø facilities while providing much-needed flexibility to the energy market.
Partnering with Danske Commodities allows us to leverage their expertise in energy trading to ensure that the Kassø facility operates at maximum efficiency when it comes online later this year. This allows us to take a significant step forward in our mission to deliver sustainable energy solutions on a large scale, said Knud Erik Andersen when the revised agreement was announced in June this year.
E-methanol offtake deals in place
Denmark has emerged as a hub for almost all things methanol, in particular, methanol mobility, and European Energy has several offtake agreements in place across different sectors for the e-methanol that will be shipped out by tanker truck and/or by tanker vessel via the Port of Åbenrå.
A legacy agreement is with Circle K Danmark, the Danish arm of global fuel retailer and forecourt convenience store Circle K, which reached an agreement with PtX technology developer and e-fuel producer REintegrate to buy some 50 million litres over five years.
European Energy acquired full ownership of REintegrate in late 2021 and is using REintegrate reactor technology at the Kassø PtX facility.
Compatriot global container shipping major A.P. Moller – Maersk (Maersk) first struck a deal in 2021 for the supply of 10,000 tonnes per annum to fuel “Laura Mærsk”, the world’s first methanol-enabled container vessel, that was officially named in September 2023.
Now in service, the 2,100 TEU (twenty-foot-equivalent) feeder vessel operates between the Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Copenhagen Malmö Port (CMP), Denmark, and the Port of Gothenburg, Sweden.
European Energy and Maersk have since strengthened the partnership on a corporate level, and intend to investigate the development of e-methanol plants in North- and South America with a combined production capacity of up to 300,000 tonnes annually for use as fuel by Maersk container vessels.
Other off takes are for e-methanol as a feedstock to replace fossil-derived methanol in plastics production and include companies such as the LEGO Group and global pharmaceutical major Novo Nordisk.
The LEGO Group will explore the potential of using the e-methanol to make selected elements in its extensive LEGO toy portfolio and expects to develop prototypes in the coming years with a view to commercialization in the longer term, while Novo Nordisk aims to substitute fossil-based plastic with lower-carbon sources to be used in medical devices such as insulin pens.
Sector coupling with heat offtake
A by-product of the PtX process is excess heat, and Kassø PtX has a heat off take agreement with local municipal utility Åbenrå Fjernvarme to deliver around 50 GWh per year once it begins operations.
District heat piping has been laid connecting Kassø PtX to the network, and the heat supply will enable Åbenrå Fjernvarme to fully transition from fossil heat sources while improving the overall energy efficiency of the Kassø PtX-plant.
A re-design of the reactor and cooling water system enables us to capture excess heat from the exothermal process in the reactor loop. The 60°C cooling water from the reactor is boosted up to 70-80°C with a heat pump that is cooling other parts of the e-methanol plant, explained Dr Jürgen Jacoby, Senior Project Developer, PtX, European Energy Sweden during the visit.
Part of the funding for the integration of the Kassø PtX plant with Åbenrå Fjernvarme’s heating network is from ”Det Sydjyske Erhvervsfyrtårn”, a collaborative green energy and sector coupling project that consists of several organizations, companies, universities and the South Jutland municipalities.
Investigations are ongoing at Kassø PtX looking to capture excess heat from the electrolyzers thus potentially doubling heat supply to around 100 GWh annually. This would improve Kassø PtX-plant efficiency even further.
Carbon dioxide from biogas upgrading
The biogenic CO2 needed for the plant is being supplied in liquefied form by one of Europe’s largest biogas plants, ENVO Biogas Tønder.
With a design capacity to process up to 900,000 tonnes of organic waste once fully operational, ENVO Biogas Tønder will produce and inject up to 40 million Nm3 biomethane aka renewable natural gas (RNG) into the gas grid annually and supply around 45,000 tonnes of liquefied biogenic CO2 (bioLCO2) to Kassø PtX.
As a by the way, the carbon capture and liquefaction technology being deployed by ENVO Biogas Tønder is supplied by Ammongas, a biogas upgrading technology company acquired by European Energy in 2022.
Pioneering safe onsite methanol storage
While Kassø PtX is still in the advanced stages of construction, the plant has seemingly already pioneered new safety protocols for onsite methanol storage.
As a chemical, methanol is fully soluble in water and is readily biodegradable in both water and soil in the event of spillage.
However, accumulations of vapours in confined spaces have to be avoided, and containers filled with methanol may rupture violently if exposed to fi re or excessive heat for a prolonged duration.
To mitigate scenarios with accidental truck collisions, lightning strikes, a fire in the PtX plant, etc, the above-ground methanol storage tanks are fully encased in gravel mounds.
