In the United States (US), Fairway Methanol LLC, a US-based 50-50 joint venture between Japan-headed Mitsui & Co., Ltd and US-headed Celanese Corporation, a global specialty materials and chemical company, has begun the production of methanol by using carbon dioxide emitted from plants surrounding the joint venture's Clear Lake, Texas (TX) facility.
According to a statement, Fairway Methanol is expected to capture 180,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) and produce 130,000 tonnes of low-carbon methanol per year at the facility, increasing the total annual production capacity for the Clear Lake plant to 1.63 million tonnes of methanol.
This additional methanol production, using industry-derived CO2, is one of the carbon capture and utilization (CCU) projects that Mitsui has undertaken.
The concept behind these projects considers CO2 as a resource that can be reused as a raw material, thus realizing carbon recycling and helping to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
This project provides Mitsui with another low-carbon solution in its methanol business portfolio, following the low-carbon methanol (mass-balance basis) production at Fairway Methanol and the e-methanol production at Solar Park Kasso in Denmark.
In its Medium-term Management Plan 2026, Mitsui has identified Global Energy Transition as one of its Key Strategic Initiatives in which CCU fosters circularity by using emitted CO2 to create various chemical products that can reduce the need for fossil sources.
