Clariant, a sustainability-focused specialty chemical company, today announced its collaboration in Repsol’s pioneering methanol plant in El Morell near Tarragona, Spain.

The Ecoplanta project will be the first of its kind in Europe to convert municipal waste into renewable methanol. The facility will operate using Enerkem’s advanced waste gasification process, supported by a range of Clariant’s syngas purification catalysts and its highly active MegaMax methanol synthesis catalysts.

Scheduled for completion in 2029, the plant will use 400,000 tons of non-recyclable solid municipal waste annually to produce 240,000 tons of methanol.

Georg Anfang, Vice President Syngas and Fuels at Clariant Catalysts, commented, “We are proud to collaborate with Repsol and Enerkem in the prestigious Ecoplanta project to support Europe’s energy transition. Leveraging our decades of innovations in methanol synthesis catalysts, Clariant is uniquely positioned to drive the large-scale deployment of low-carbon methanol technologies that will play a decisive role in decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries.”

Michel Chornet, CEO of Enerkem, added, “We are excited to contribute to the Ecoplanta project and set an inspiring example for others on the path to decarbonization. Our technology not only enables large-scale production of low-carbon methanol and the reduction of waste in landfills but also avoids substantial greenhouse gas emissions. According to estimates, abatement will be equivalent to 3.4 million tons of CO2 in the first 10 years of operation.”

Clariant’s catalytic technologies are perfectly suited to the Ecoplanta process. After gasification of municipal waste, the trap and guard catalysts will be used to efficiently remove all types of impurities, such as metals, halogens, and sulfur species. The purified syngas will then be converted to methanol using the MegaMax series catalysts. Due to its high activity, the catalyst can optimize methanol yield while significantly reducing operating costs. MegaMax also offers enhanced selectivity, which greatly reduces the formation of by-products and thus improves the sustainability and economics of bio-methanol production.