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46 min ago 2 min read
Biofuels producer Perpetual Next has selected engineering firm Bilfinger as owner’s engineer for its up to €1bn ($1.15m) large-scale biomethanol production facility in Delfzijl, the Netherlands.
Bilfinger will support the company through the next stage of project development and advance it towards a final investment decision (FID).
The Delfzijl facility is made up of two separate plants, the DeltaTorr and DeltaNor projects, under the same carbon value chain.
The DeltaTorr carbonisation plant has a planned biocarbon production capacity of 350,000 tonnes each year. The company will use carbonisation, or torrefaction, to pre-treat biomass to produce biocarbon feedstock.
DeltaTor biocarbon feedstock would then be supplied to the DeltaNor plant where gasification technologies will produce 220,000 tonnes of biomethanol annually.
Under Perpetual Next’s “biomethanol blueprint”, torrefaction dries and stabilises biomass, gasification converts it into synthesis gas, and methanol synthesis turns that gas into methanol.
Biomethanol can support the decarbonisation of sectors where renewable carbon molecules remain essential, including maritime transport and the chemical industry.
The Delfzijl facility is expected to strengthen the Netherlands’ and Europe’s position in the biomethanol and sustainable fuels market.
Perpetual Next recently announced a with waste management firm PreZero Netherlands, involving the use of waste wood as a raw material for biomethanol and biomethane production at its Delfzijl and Moerdijk facilities.
Global biomethanol rollout
Perpetual Next’s biomethanol blueprint is designed to support repeatable deployment and scaling to commercial production, targeting global biomethanol rollout.
This month, Perpetual Next consulting firm Kreston ME Consulting to conduct a feasibility study for a proposed biomethanol production facility and regional commercial platform in the United Arab Emirates.
The company is pursuing a similar launch of its biomethanol production blueprint in other markets. In January, Perpetual Next announced plans to develop three biomass-to-biomethanol facilities in the , with development due to begin this year.
The US plants are each designed around approximately one million tonnes per year of sustainably sourced biomass feedstock.
According to market research, the global biomethanol market is projected to attract significant investment, increasing in value from $1.97bn in 2026 to $7.11bn in 2032.
