European Energy could not have chosen a better day to invite the Danish Parliament's Climate, Energy and Utilities Committee to the company's upcoming PtX plant. It seemed as if it was the first sunny day of 2024 with windy weather that had replaced both snow, rain and darkness. The plant is located in Kassø in Aabenraa Municipality, where a full 340 MW of solar cells are expected to supply power for green electricity for 52 MW of electrolysis.
The green hydrogen from here is added to 45,000 tons of biogenic CO2 annually in the PtX process, and ultimately 42,000 tons of E-methanol are produced from this entire chain. The large amount of excess heat that the process generates has already been taken into account, as Aabenraa District Heating is already connected. This means that a heat pump with 1.2 MW of power boosts the already hot water up to nine MW and a temperature of 75 degrees. The district heating water is then led three kilometers to nearby Rødekro, where Aabenraa Fjernvarme also provides the district heating supply.
Today's host, European Energy's CEO Knud Erik Andersen, can also quickly tell about the rapid development and awareness of methanol.
- Right now, methanol is the second most ordered fuel, and it has displaced LNG to third place. Two years ago, we thought that methanol could only be used as a fuel for the shipping industry. Today, we know that it is needed in plastic production. This is a need that may be as great as the need for methanol for fuel, says Knud Erik Andersen.
It is mainly Maersk's ships that will be supplied with fuel in the form of methanol from the Kassø plant, but LEGO and Novo Nordisk are also on the customer list.
PtX will use biogenic CO2
The CEO also has a point that he would like to convey to the politicians present, and it concerns CCS - the storage of CO2 in the Danish subsoil in the North Sea. There is a need for biogenic CO2 for the production of methanol and other forms of PtX. And here a danger lurks if government subsidies are provided to store both fossil and biogenic CO2.
- We have good conditions to get into the low-price area with our methanol. We can't do that if you pay to put it in the ground, says Knud Erik Andersen to the politicians in the Danish parliament and concludes:
- Biogen CO2 should not be put in the ground.
In the background, Green Power Denmark's deputy CEO Jan Hylleberg nods approvingly to those words. He sees Kassø as the beginning. But there is more that is needed if Denmark's green export future is to be secured.
- This is the first step we will have to take many times Kassø. If all the projects on the drawing board in Denmark come to fruition, it will total approximately five GW. But it all requires green electricity and biogenic CO2, says Jan Hylleberg, clearly outlining the dilemma for the politicians present:
- We are about to miss the chances of getting the biogenic CO2, because we are about to stumble over the 2030 targets.
Hydrogen pipeline: A necessity
But that is not the only message that is very important for the green future.
- Here you make a refined product. But a hydrogen infrastructure is extremely important because it has great business potential. We hear from Germany that they can take all the hydrogen we can produce, explains Hylleberg.
From a local perspective, the mayor of Aabenraa is also happy.
- This will be the major growth engine with a supporting industry. We are in the process of establishing a PtX secretariat, and we would like to do business tourism with this, says Jan Riber (C) – who points out that the entire RE expansion is taking place in dialogue with the municipality's citizens:
- We hold a lot of citizen meetings, and that is really important.
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