SunGas Renewables has selected Johnson Matthey (JM) as a technology partner for its flagship Beaver Lake Renewable Energy project — a biomethanol plant planned in Rapides Parish, Louisiana.

The plant will be an investment of more than $2 billion, creating more than 1,000 jobs during construction and around 100 permanent jobs. The site will be one of the largest such plants currently planned in the US and the biomethanol will primarily be for use as marine fuel, but can also be used as a feedstock for SAF production and the wider chemicals industry.

It is expected to produce more than 500,000 metric tonnes of biomethanol every year; the equivalent of powering up to 9 of some of the largest oceangoing container vessels today. SunGas Renewables has now announced the start of front-end engineering design (FEED) carried out by Kiewit and Jacobs Engineering, marking the beginning of the final stage of development for the project.

SunGas Renewables is developing the project with C2X, a leading developer of methanol projects. C2X and ENEOS, Japan’s leading energy company, recently announced a combined investment of US$100 million from ENEOS and existing C2X shareholders A.P. Moller Holding and A.P. Moller – Maersk, primarily to advance the development of the Beaver Lake Renewable Energy project. Following completion of the FEED phase, construction is expected to start in the second half of 2026.

JM has been selected as a key technology partner providing methanol synthesis technology and catalysts. JM’s methanol technology converts syngas from biomass gasification into biomethanol, effectively managing impurities from the upstream gasification process. The technology is well proven at scale and combines JM’s methanol synthesis loop with a highly effective methanol synthesis catalyst delivering sustained, high feedstock efficiency while enhancing operational performance.