Seeing early shipowner interest in e-methanol offtake – Reolum

Some shipping companies want to secure e-methanol supply “ahead of the competition spike foreseen by 2030–2032,” Yann Dumont, chief executive and vice president at Reolum told ENGINE.

IMAGE: 3D blueprint of Reolum's La Robla Nueva Energia project in Spain. La Robla Green

Spanish project developer Reolum explained that delays related to “various approvals (IMO) and transpositions of EU regulations at national level, which in some Member States have not even been transposed” can “speed up or slow down the market.”

Transposition refers to the process of incorporating EU directives into the national laws of EU Member States.

Development of an e-methanol project takes around two years, followed by another two to three years for construction, Dumont noted.

With relatively few e-methanol projects currently under development, shipowners could find themselves scrambling for supply of the low-emission fuel, especially as “SAF [Sustainable Aviation Fuel] demand is coming along with maritime and others,” Dumont stressed.

This has led shipowners to move to lock in e-methanol supply before an expected competition spike squeezes availability towards the end of this decade.

“These are strategical deals and some shipowners have understood it,” he added.

Reolum has planned three e-methanol plants in La Robla, Villadangos Green and Monfarracinos (Zamora) in Spain, each with a planned capacity of 140,000 mt/year.

It has designed an integrated e-methanol production facility comprising a biomass cogeneration plant, a CO2 capture unit and a green hydrogen production unit. The facility will process around 120,000 mt/year of waste-based agricultural biomass to capture around 200,000 mt/year of CO2.

This CO2 will then be combined with green hydrogen to produce 140,000 mt/year of e-methanol at each site.

Dumont confirmed that the company's first plant in La Robla is set to start operations at the biomass power plant in the fourth quarter of 2027, in line with the schedule announced early last year.

“Nevertheless, the methanol plant will have its ramp up in the first semester of 2028,” he added.

Construction of the Villadangos plant is set to start in the second half of 2026, with Monfarracinos following the next year.

“Bunkering is one of the allocations, but not the only one,” Dumont said.

By Konica Bhatt

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