en.Wedoany.com Reported - On August 7, Unitel Technologies, a U.S. engineering and technology company, disclosed that it has completed the demonstration of its Merlin carbon capture and utilization-to-methanol process. The company stated that this process has now been applied to a 10,000-ton-per-year methanol plant in Danyang, South Korea.

Unitel's standardized solution can consume 30,000 tons of captured CO2 annually and produce 73,000 tons of methanol, equivalent to approximately 200 tons per day. This solution is designed for deployment alongside existing ethanol plants, utilizing CO2 generated from the fermentation process while sharing the plant's natural gas, electricity, personnel, and infrastructure. The 10,000-ton annual capacity of the Danyang facility falls within the existing application scale and differs in scope from the 73,000-ton standard solution design value.

The methanol produced can be used in biodiesel, formaldehyde, resins, adhesives, chemical intermediates, and energy products. As a cost comparison, Unitel estimates that if the route of directly synthesizing methanol from captured CO2 and electrolytic hydrogen is adopted, with electrolytic hydrogen priced at $5 per kilogram, the hydrogen feedstock cost alone would amount to approximately $1,000 per ton of methanol.