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51 min ago 2 min read
Indian conglomerate Acme Group will supply 100,000 tonnes of green hydrogen-based methanol to Japan’s Mitsubishi Gas Chemical (MGC) under a binding $1bn, 10-year offtake agreement.
The deal comes swiftly after Acme won Japanese government backing to tonnes of green ammonia per year to engineering group IHI.
The green methanol will be produced at Acme’s planned 200,000 tonne per year project in , alongside the firm’s 400,000-tonne green ammonia project in Gopalpur.
Deliveries are expected to begin in 2030.
Few details have been revealed about the methanol project. However, according to company statements, the green chemical will be compliant with EU renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) rules.
Methanol is a chemical used across chemical and pharmaceutical markets, as well as plastics and resin production.
Green methanol – produced by combining green hydrogen and biogenic carbon dioxide – is also being viewed as a potential future shipping fuel. However, uptake has been limited by the high costs of the chemical, primarily driven by hydrogen costs.
“The green methanol that MGC will offtake under this contract will have the ultra-low carbon intensity compliant with EU regulations and future IMO regulations, alongside an attractive price to the green market,” MGC’s Hideaki Akase said
MGC also recently signed a non-binding deal with natural hydrogen start-up Gold Hydrogen to explore setting up methanol production using .
It adds to a growing number of deals that will see large volumes of clean hydrogen derivatives imported into Japan.
In 2024, it passed the , a 15-year subsidy scheme including imported low-carbon hydrogen and derivatives.
Earlier this year, the Jera and Mitsui as low-carbon hydrogen suppliers under the act, for the volumes of blue ammonia they are set to offtake from the 1.4 million tonnes-per-year Blue Point project in Louisiana, US.
