Spain will host the most important inexperienced methanol plant in Europe | Economy | EUROtoday

Two massive power and maritime transport firms, Cepsa and Maersk, took benefit this Friday of the second day of the COP28 held in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) to announce an funding of as much as 1,000 million euros to launch the most important inexperienced methanol plant in Europe and one of many 5 largest on the planet. The challenge could have an annual manufacturing capability of 300,000 tons of this compound, known as to play a basic position within the decarbonization of freight transport by sea.

The tentative funding – which have to be ratified in 2025 – is a part of the Danish Maersk’s dedication to Spain, the place only a yr in the past it revealed that it will allocate an quantity of 10 billion euros to generate methanol from inexperienced hydrogen, which it’s going to use as gas for his or her ships.

According to Cepsa figures, when the challenge will get underway it’s going to generate as much as 2,500 jobs, each direct and oblique, “and will position Andalusia and Spain as a hub global leader in sustainable energies for the production of green molecules.” The renewable hydrogen produced within the Andalusian inexperienced hydrogen valley that’s being developed in Huelva and Cádiz will provide “part” of the quantity required for this plant to transform it into methanol.

“This project will not only mean a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions, but green methanol will also allow us to advance the sustainability of sectors that are difficult to decarbonize, such as maritime transport or the chemical industry,” stated the Spanish president, Pedro. Sánchez, in Dubai. “It is a significant step towards a future free of fossil fuels, it places Spain as a global benchmark,” he added.

For his half, Maarten Wetselaar, CEO of Cepsa—the second largest Spanish oil firm and one of many European firms within the fossil sector that’s attempting to adapt the quickest to a future during which the significance of oil and gasoline will likely be a minority—, has valued the settlement with Maersk as “another milestone in our strategy to make Spain a hub European, with viable projects to reduce emissions in sectors that are difficult and urgent to decarbonize.” The power firm’s chief government has additionally valued the collaboration with the Government to “develop the regulatory framework necessary for this project to be successful and expand.”

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