Project Air, a collaboration between Perstorp, Fortum and Uniper, aims to build a sustainable methanol production facility.
The consortium behind the Sweden based project, has applied for €97m and is one of 17 large-scale green tech projects to be granted more than €1.8bn.
With methanol heavily used in the chemicals industry, the facility will use recycled and bio-based feedstock enabling sustainable chemical products to a large variety of industries and end products.
At full capacity, it is claimed that Project Air will reduce global CO2 emissions by roughly 500,000 tons from today’s levels, or one percent of Sweden’s current emissions.
Perstorp President and CEO Jan Secher, said, “The Innovation Fund’s decision shows that Project Air is an important future investment for the climate.”
“This is a crucial decision for Perstorp, our customers and partners, as it creates increased availability of sustainable chemical products throughout our value chains.”
“The chemical industry needs the carbons, but it must be non-fossil carbons and they must be put into circular flows so we get rid of CO2 in the atmosphere.”
Project Air will be built at Perstorp’s existing facilities in Stenungsund, Sweden, and the sustainable methanol will be used to produce chemical products – which in turn, are used in a variety of applications in several industries and businesses.
Project Air now enters the Grant Agreement Preparation process, which is to be completed during the fourth quarter. The project design and planning of the facility are being conducted in parallel.
Other projects selected for the European Union Innovation Fund include; the world’s first commercial-scale drop-in biofuel production facility, in Norway; an onshore carbon mineral storage terminal in Iceland; and a 15,500 tonnes per annum hydrogen production facility in the Netherlands.