【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】Disruptive technological breakthroughs from 2030 to 2026! Shanghai converts wet waste into green methanol, achieving a carbon reduction rate that far exceeds EU standards

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Let’s give praise and support to the achievements made in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment; your participation in discussions is the greatest encouragement. **********************【Ten Years of Progress in Chemical Engineering Equipment】Regular updates and summaries are available; feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html ***************** On January 31, 2026, a meeting was held at the Shanghai Laogang Ecological Environment Protection Base to review the progress of the project titled “Key Technologies for the Complete Carbon Conversion of Biogas into Green Methanol and Pilot-Scale Testing”. The massive, thousand-ton-scale pilot plant uses wet waste as raw material to produce green methanol, with costs that are more than 30% lower compared to existing technologies. This pilot project has obtained dual certification from ISCC-EU (International Sustainable Development and Carbon Certification – EU version) and ISCC-PLUS (International Sustainable Development and Carbon Certification – General version). Its \"carbon emission intensity reduction rate over the entire life cycle\" is more than 30 percentage points higher than the EU standards. The Municipal Science and Technology Commission stated that this represents a groundbreaking technological advancement, providing solid support for Shanghai’s efforts to become an international hub for green fuel refueling in the shipping industry. Green methanol is a low-carbon fuel that can be produced using green electricity to convert biogas generated from biomass resources such as wet waste and straw through fermentation. In April 2024, Shanghai Yangshan Port carried out Asia’s first simultaneous bunkering of a large container ship powered by green methanol, between two ships. In recent years, this green fuel has gradually replaced fossil fuels used in ships, becoming the key factor in reducing carbon emissions in the global shipping industry. To build a high-quality green methanol industry chain, the project management team for green fuels at the Municipal Science and Technology Commission focused on disruptive technologies and carried out technical screenings. Through research, the project management team identified two groundbreaking technologies at universities and enterprises in Shanghai: the anaerobic production of biogas from lignin, and the targeted conversion of all carbon in biogas into green methanol. Although they are all in the early stages of industrialization, they have the potential to exert a disruptive impact on the existing landscape of the industry. Last July, the project titled \"Key Technologies for the Directed Conversion of Biogas Carbon into Green Methanol and Pilot-Scale Verification\" was launched. This Shanghai-based initiative for green fuels is led by Fujie Technology, a company listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, in collaboration with East China University of Science and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Urban Investment Group, Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Company, and Shanghai Port Energy – a truly powerful alliance. “The goal of this project is to transform disruptive technologies into new forms of productive capacity; therefore, we have companies take the lead in promoting collaboration among industry, academia, and research institutions. ”Zhao Yixin, head of the Municipal Science and Technology Commission and project manager for green fuels, said. A project milestone is set each quarter, and evaluations at key stages are conducted every six months. Driven by the project management team, the project made significant progress in just half a year – achieving kilogram-scale production of key materials such as biogas purification adsorbents, catalysts for the mixed reforming of all carbon components in biogas, and catalysts for green methanol synthesis, as well as conducting single-tube pilot tests on the adsorbents and catalysts ； Highly efficient electrically driven biogas mixed reforming reactors, methanol synthesis reactors, and methanol separation and purification equipment have been developed ； The design of the methanol synthesis process package with an annual production capacity of thousands of tons, as well as the construction and installation of a pilot plant with the same capacity, have been completed. This month, a pilot plant with a capacity of thousands of tons produced green methanol that meets international shipping fuel standards, with a purity of 99.99% and a bio-based carbon content of 97.78%. Having obtained international green dual certifications, the pilot project achieves a carbon reduction rate for its life cycle carbon emission intensity of over 95%, compared to 65% for the indicator as per EU certification. Why is it more than 30 percentage points higher than EU standards? Chen De, a chair professor at East China University of Science and Technology and the chief scientist at Fujie Technology, explained that he led his team in developing a technology for the targeted conversion of all carbon in biogas into green methanol. This approach overcomes the limitation of existing technologies, which are unable to utilize carbon dioxide present in biogas; it minimizes carbon dioxide emissions throughout the reaction process. Carbon dioxide is then fed together with methane into a methanol synthesis reactor featuring two towers and a dual-circulation system, thereby converting all of the carbon into green methanol. With a carbon utilization rate of nearly 100%, the production cost of green methanol has dropped significantly, to 3,800 yuan per ton. Currently, the production cost of green methanol in the market is 6,000–7,000 yuan per ton. Due to the high price of green electricity in Shanghai, if such innovative processes and complete sets of technologies are rolled out nationwide in the future, production costs will further decrease. “This project has achieved 3 pioneering technologies and 4 transformative results. ”Duan Xuezhi, a professor at East China University of Science and Technology, said that the three innovative technologies are respectively the co-anaerobic fermentation of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin for biogas production, the methane mixed reforming electro-driven reactor technology, and the copper-nickel dual-tower dual-circulation methanol synthesis technology ； These technological breakthroughs have given rise to four transformative outcomes: high methane production, full carbon utilization, zero emissions, and high efficiency. After making significant progress, the project team plans to complete the development of the 100,000-ton process package by December this year, achieving 72 hours of stable operation of the pilot plant, thereby laying the foundation for the industrial application demonstration of 100,000-ton green methanol next year. Zhao Yixin explained that developing a green methanol industry chain is an important part of Shanghai’s future green energy industry; the related equipment and catalysts will be manufactured in Shanghai, from where they will be distributed across the country and even exported to international markets.