"Bringing environmentally friendly Icelandic technology to the global market"

The Icelandic company Carbon Recycling International (CRI) has helped set up the world's largest chemical plant in China that uses carbon dioxide emissions as material for chemical processing.

The plant can recover about 160,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year from emissions, with an annual production capacity of about 110,000 tons of methanol. The plant is located in Anyang in the Henan Province in China and is owned by Shunli, which is majority owned by the Chinese industrial company Henan Shuncheng Group.

The plant has been under design and construction for the past two years. It is based on manufacturing techniques and equipment developed by CRI which was first tried and tested at the company's Svartsengi power station. The plant in China is 28-fold bigger than the Icelandic Svartsengi power station.  CRI is a global leader in the technology for producing green chemicals and electrical fuel by reusing carbon dioxide.

Catalytic tank a key component in the process

A key component of the plant's manufacturing process is a catalytic tank designed and built to CRI specifications. The catalytic tank is filled with chemical catalysts that contribute to the conversion of carbon dioxide to liquid methanol, which can be used both as fuel and as raw material for a wide range of chemical products.

The catalyctic tank weights about 84 tons or more than a fully loaded Boeing 737 passenger jet. The tank is mounted inside a steel frame and connected by piping to other equipment, including a specialized gas compressor and a nearly 70-meter-high distillery column, which is a little lower than Hallgrímskirkja, the tallest church in Reykjavík.

CRI employs about 30 people but the project is the largest the company has taken on so far. Since June, the company's team has been working on site in China.

Treatment and separation of gas

The manufacturing process involves the treatment and separation of the gas from the coke ovens as well as capturing the CO2 stream which would otherwise be emitted into the air. The gas is produced as a by-product of the processing of raw materials such as coke and limestone used in steel making. The methanol is produced by the so-called ETL technology developed by CRI. It replaces coal-derived methanol in China, according to an announcement from CRI.

The methanol produced in this process has a much smaller carbon footprint than in different methanol production processes in China. China is the world’s largest producer and user of methanol and about 80% of methanol is produced by coal-burning. That production has the downside of high air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, or more than four tons of carbon dioxide per a ton of methanol produced.

Proud of the project

“We are very proud of the company’s success in this important project, bringing environmentally friendly Icelandic technology to the global market. CRI’s technology is unique worldwide, but its use can reduce carbon dioxide emissions while producing a product that can play a key role in energy exchange, among other things. CRI’s technology can produce electrical fuel in this country that replace fossil fuel. The domestic production of electricity fuel also supports the domestic economy and increases energy security. For instance, the production of three plants of this size would be sufficient for full energy exchange for the country’s fleet, for example,” says Björk Kristjánsdóttir, director of CRI.

CRI has just received the Icelandic Engineering Association’s Cube Award for the development of the technology and the factory in Anyang, China.

CRI has now completed the design of its second plant in China. It is scheduled to be launched by the end of 2023. The company has experienced a surge in demand worldwide for its environmentally friendly technology.

“Each factory generates valuable import revenues from, among other things, license fees on technology, engineering work, technical services and specialty equipment sales. The company is an important player in the circular economy and bases its operations on the export of environmental solutions and intellectual property developed in Iceland,” the announcement reads.