China Energy Ltd. To Triple Methanol Production Capacity, Quadruple DME Production
03 December 2007
China Energy Ltd., a producer of methanol and dimethyl ether (DME), plans to invest US$443 million to triple its methanol production capacity to 750,000 metric tons/year by the end of 2008. The company mainly uses methanol as feedstock to produce DME.
The company plans to boost DME capacity to 3.6 million tons a year by the end of 2009, up from an earlier expansion target of 3.2 million tonnes and a quadrupling from the 900,000 tonnes for this year.
Since its expansion in methanol production is insufficient for its DME plans, the company will buy methanol from other sources to make up the gap.
The company expects China’s demand for dimethyl ether as vehicle fuel to stay strong in the medium term.
My concern is that given energy losses in going from coal to methanol and then methanol to DME, China's methanol/DME plans may worsen the carbon dioxide/global warming situation.
Its one of those frustrating conflics we find in life, that importation of natural gas from the Middle East (i.e. nations whose politics we don't like) may well be less carbon dioxide coal.
Posted by: Alex Kovnat | 03 December 2007 at 10:48 AM
Whoops .... forgot a word in the last sentence. I meant, " ..... less carbon dioxide intensive THAN coal. "
Posted by: Alex Kovnat | 03 December 2007 at 10:50 AM