On March 12, European Energy produced the first raw e-methanol at Kassø PtX outside Aabenraa. Now the Ptx plant can produce the green methanol with power from the half a million solar panels that bathe in the bright spring sun near the plant. However, the road to production has not been without obstacles.
The location alone, out in the fields where the solar panels are located, was a challenge for a specific reason, explains project director at European Energy and CEO of Kassø PtX, Rene Alcaraz Frederiksen.
- A PtX plant cannot be located in a rural zone, it must be in an industrial zone. Luckily, there was already a data center as a neighbor that already had an industrial zone permit. That saved us a bit, he says.
But there were going to be more obstacles on the way, because every week three to four trucks come to transport the e-methanol from Kassø to the Port of Aabenraa. Here, the e-methanol has to be stored in tanks until it is shipped, but storing e-methanol is also a new country.
Legislation makes storage more expensive
Three tanks in sizes 2500, 1000 and 500 cubic meters had to be retrofitted to store the e-methanol, which, if ignited, is very similar to ordinary household alcohol. But again, the legislation played a difficult trick, because e-methanol has stricter regulations than gasoline, even though gasoline poses a significantly greater explosion hazard.
- It is more difficult to make methanol explode than gasoline. You should make an assessment – ask a firefighter which fire he would most like to put out, says Rene Alcaraz Frederiksen.
The regulations have meant that the tanks have been given extra security, and this has resulted in extra costs.
- The brand new fire protection systems at the tanks can deploy foam at the push of a button, he says and elaborates on a significant difference to existing oil tanks with around 100,000 m³ of oil:
- There is no other fire protection than a fire extinguisher.
The additional costs would also have had consequences if it had not been for the Danish customers such as Mærsk and Lego.
- If we did not have the customers that we have, we would have shipped the methanol abroad, notes Rene Alcaraz Frederiksen about something that could have saved European Energy costs.
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