European chemical startup Vioneo has given up on building a 300,000-ton/year plant for producing polyolefins from green methanol in Europe, and has decided to invest in a similar project in China

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On January 16, European chemical startup Vioneo announced that it would abandon plans to build a plant in Europe for the production of polyolefins from green methanol on a scale of 300,000 tons per year, and instead decided to invest in a similar project in China. Vioneo states that being able to obtain green methanol locally \"helps to develop pricing strategies that are beneficial for customers, while also improving supply chain efficiency, reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and accelerating the time it takes to bring products to market.\" To this end, the establishment of a more efficient production plant in China will be its first commercial-scale facility for producing polyolefins from green methanol. Previously, Vioneo planned to build its first commercial-scale plant in Antwerp, Belgium, with an investment of around 1.5 billion euros; the plant would produce 200,000 tons of polypropylene and 100,000 tons of polyethylene per year, using agricultural and forestry waste as raw material for green methanol. According to foreign media reports, Judy Hicks, vice president and head of corporate affairs at Vioneo, revealed on January 20 that the specific location within China has not yet been determined. The project’s timeline, production capacity, investment scale, and technical partners remain unchanged, with operations expected to begin \"by the end of 2029 or early 2030.\" Hicks pointed out that a range of factors, including European regulatory requirements, approval processes, and the overall speed and complexity of obtaining funding, led Vioneo to abandon the Antwerp project. “It is becoming increasingly clear that, under the current circumstances, this project is not feasible from an economic perspective. ”She said that although relevant European policies are moving in the right direction, this process takes time. Hicks said the company is still in talks with potential clients. The site for this project has been chosen in China to enable us to offer customers more competitive price advantages… It’s ultimately a matter of price, and such a choice will accelerate our ability to provide services to customers. ”She also pointed out that the construction cost and schedule of the project in China are key factors that need to be taken into consideration. Vioneo’s decision is another heavy blow to Europe’s petrochemical industry. Due to an oversupply in the market, weak demand, high input costs, and the competition from imported products at competitive prices, Europe’s petrochemical industry has long been in a state of decline, with many chemical plants having already closed or announcing their intention to close permanently. The Antwerp project originally planned to import 800,000 tons of renewable methanol from China each year as a raw material, to use in the methanol-to-olefins process for the production of ethylene and propylene, which in turn would be used to manufacture polyethylene and polypropylene. However, Hicks said that Vioneo has not ruled out the possibility of establishing new factories in Europe in the future. She emphasized that having access to a supply of renewable methanol is a key requirement that any potential site must meet.