New Technology Provides Profit Opportunity by Converting a Zero/Low-Cost Vented Waste Stream into a High Value Product

Unitel Technologies, Inc. announced that the company has successfully demonstrated its Merlin process for making methanol with captured carbon dioxide. This carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology is currently being used at a plant in Danyang, South Korea for producing 10,000 tons/year of methanol.

The standard Merlin process is designed to consume 30,000 tons/year of captured carbon dioxide to produce 73,000 tons/year (200 tons/day) of blue methanol. Its application makes financial sense as a supplement to existing ethanol plants where there is always a supply of fermentation carbon dioxide, and available resources such as natural gas, power, workforce and infrastructure.

The primary market segments for methanol in North America are biodiesel production, formaldehyde/resins/adhesives, chemical intermediates, specialty chemicals and fuel and energy uses. Total demand in the United States in 2025 was appr. 11.5 million metric tons at a market price of $1,000-$1,400 per ton. The growing need for methanol as a marine fuel is expected to increase demand significantly to around 18 million tons/year by 2035.

The Merlin CCU technology is clearly more profitable than carbon capture and storage/sequestration (CCS) that typically yields a net profit of $55-$65 per ton of carbon dioxide after federal tax credits.

“Another CCU method of producing methanol involves the reaction of captured carbon dioxide with electrolytic hydrogen,” says Dr. Ravi Randhava, President of Unitel. “However, this chemistry does not make economic sense,” adds Randhava. “At a nominal cost of $5 per kilogram for electrolytic hydrogen, this feedstock alone amounts to $1,000 per ton of methanol produced.”

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