Dutch biomethanol developer Perpetual Next has signed a licence and engineering agreement with Air Liquide Engineering and Technologies for the supply of syngas-to-methanol technology, with an option to extend the arrangement across multiple future production sites.
The deal covers Air Liquide's Rectisol and Lurgi Methanol technologies, which will be deployed at Perpetual Next's first biomethanol facility in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. The Delfzijl plant is planned with an annual production capacity of 220,000 tonnes of biomethanol.
The agreement is central to what Perpetual Next calls its Biomethanol Blueprint — a standardised plant concept designed to allow serial replication of large-scale biomethanol facilities using proven industrial technologies. The blueprint integrates torrefaction, gasification, syngas cleaning and upgrading, and methanol synthesis to convert low-grade organic waste, including waste wood, into biomethanol.
Perpetual Next said the standardised approach is intended to reduce development complexity, support repeatable project execution and create economies of scale across a portfolio of facilities. Beyond Delfzijl, the company is developing sites in Moerdijk in the Netherlands, Poland, Estonia and the United States.
Rolf Bosma, managing director of Perpetual Next, said: "Delfzijl will be the first application of the concept, providing the foundation for subsequent projects in Moerdijk, Poland, Estonia and other sites worldwide. By establishing a framework with Air Liquide for multiple biomethanol sites, we are creating a scalable technology platform that supports the roll-out of our biomethanol portfolio."
The company said demand for renewable carbon-based methanol is growing in both the chemical industry and the maritime sector, where it is seen as a potential replacement for fossil-based methanol used as a shipping fuel and industrial feedstock.
