Carbon Recycling International (CRI) and Johnson Matthey (JM) have agreed on a long-term exclusive catalyst supply agreement for the use of JM’s KATALCO methanol catalysts in CRI’s Emissions-To-Liquids (ETL) CO₂-to-methanol plants.  This combined offering helps meet the urgent need to remove carbon emissions in hard-to-decarbonize sectors of the economy.

Conventional methanol production involves fossil feedstocks such as natural gas or coal. Methanol manufactured with CRI’s ETL process using JM catalysts provides an effective route to sustainable methanol from CO₂. This can be recovered from either industrial processes or biomass, such as waste and residues, or atmospheric sources.

The CRI process takes waste gases captured from the points of emission at the stack and transfers them to a gas conditioning system where impurities are removed to produce carbon dioxide suitable for downstream methanol synthesis. Where a renewable electricity source is available, hydrogen can be generated by water electrolysis using MW-scale electrolyzer technology. Hydrogen can also be processed from by-product hydrogen available in some industrial waste streams.

The catalytic conversion unit converts the gas into crude methanol, a mixture of methanol and water, at elevated temperature and pressure. This reaction is highly exothermic and heat can be recovered from the reactor to supply steam to the distillation unit. The crude methanol is separated into methanol at the required purity/quality and water in distillation columns.

This technology will provide a vital pathway to achieving net zero emissions by contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Methanol manufactured with CRI’s ETL process meets all standard industrial specifications and can be used in all current methanol applications.

As a global leader in sustainable technologies that enable decarbonization, JM will supply its methanol synthesis catalyst for the CRI-designed ETL plants.  JM’s catalyst has been used in all CRI’s plants to date and their successful 10-year cooperation will continue with this agreement.

The agreement was effective as of July 2021.