Wedoany.com Report-Mar 11, REOLUM, a Spanish company specialized in innovative solutions for decarbonization and energy transition, has awarded a consortium formed by Técnicas Reunidas S.A. (TR; Madrid, Spain) and Siemens Energy AG (Munich, Germany) the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) of the La Robla Green project, which aims to develop what will be one of Europe’s largest renewable methanol plants in the municipality of La Robla, in the Spanish province of León.
The facility, with a production capacity of 140,000 tons per year, will combine biogenic carbon from a biomass cogeneration plant with renewable hydrogen to produce e-methanol.
The project is at the forefront of the e-methanol production technologies. E-methanol is a product that will play a very important role in the decarbonization of maritime transport in its direct use as a fuel and as a raw material for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Furthermore, methanol produced from low-emission feedstocks and technologies is a key product to facilitate the decarbonization of industrial sectors that currently have high levels of emissions, such as the chemical industry or air and maritime transport.
In addition to Reolum, the project brings together the services, knowledge and capabilities of four large companies with strong specialization in decarbonization: Siemens Energy, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Johnson Matthey and Técnicas Reunidas.
According to the scope of the contract, Siemens Energy’s work will focus on the renewable hydrogen unit and Técnicas Reunidas’ work will focus on the biogenic carbon capture and e-methanol production units. In turn, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. will be the CO2 capture licensor and Johnson Matthey the supplier of a proprietary technology, called eMERALD™, which makes possible the direct hydrogenation of captured CO₂ to methanol.
This project is part of track, Técnicas Reunidas’ strategy for decarbonization, one of the main pillars of SALTA, the strategic program that Técnicas Reunidas launched last May.
The development of this engineering phase will be the previous step for the material execution of the plant, which will be carried out through an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract.
On last February 21, the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge allocated 180 million euros to the project, from NextGenerationEU funds, in the provisional resolution of the call for aids to create seven large renewable hydrogen clusters, located in the territories of Aragon, Andalusia, Castile and Leon, Catalonia and Galicia, which make up the H2 Valles Program.
