Mabanaft granted funding for a solar methanol plant in Port Augusta

Hamburg-based energy company Mabanaft has received a grant approval from the German Projektträger Jülich for the potential construction of a new green methanol plant in Port Augusta, South Australia. Together with Australian renewable energy company Vast, Mabanaft is assessing to build a demonstration plant with a capacity of around 7500 tonnes of green methanol per year.

Vast is developing a solar methanol plant at Port Augusta as well as a first-of-a-kind 30 MW/288 MWh concentrated solar power (CSP) plant.

In Germany, the project is granted public funding of approximately €12.4 million from Projektträger Jülich, partner to the public sector in science, business and politics. The Australian Government, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, has pledged to support the project to approximately $19.4 million after the project was selected as a part of the German–Australian Hydrogen Innovation and Technology Incubator (known as HyGATE).

The HyGATE initiative intends to establish a German–Australian supply chain for green hydrogen and to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the field of hydrogen technologies. For Germany, the initiative also has the potential to contribute to the National Hydrogen Strategy: importing sustainable energy sources and exporting climate protection technologies.

For Mabanaft, the planned demonstration plant can provide increased expertise for the possible construction of similar plants on a commercial scale worldwide.

“With access to green methanol, our range of sustainable energy solutions for our customers would continue to grow,” said Philipp Kroepels, Director New Energy at Mabanaft. “The funding agreement makes a crucial recognition and validation of our decarbonisation efforts and can be a strong contribution to strengthening Germany’s leading role in the global energy transition.”

“This is a significant milestone for Vast and for green fuel production globally,” added Craig Wood, CEO of Vast. “Solar methanol produced at plants like SM1 has the potential to make a huge difference to the transport sector as it urgently looks at ways to decarbonise its fuels. The funding is a testament to Vast’s technology as well as our partners within the Solar Methanol Consortium.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Natali_Mis