Liquid Wind has received an environmental permit for its second green hydrogen-based e-methanol plant in Sweden.
FlagshipTWO, planned for Sundsvall, is expected to produce 130,000 tonnes of e-methanol per year by combining green hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide (CO2) from 2027.
Having been granted an environmental permit by the Land and Environmental Court in Östersund, the plant has been slated as a key supplier of lower-carbon fuels to the maritime sector.
It will capture biogenic CO2 from Sundsvall Energi’s Korstaverket plant to reduce an estimated 283,000 tonnes of CO2 emission annually – primarily by cutting marine fossil fuel use, saving some 199,000 tonnes of CO2.
84,000 CO2 will also be stored in a parallel project run by Sundsvall Energi.
Johan Zettergren, Project Director FlagshipTWO at Liquid Wind, previously said the project would eliminate “all fossil emissions” from Korstaverket.
“The deep collaboration and process integration we are aiming for provides for a truly circular value chain based upon only local feedstock,” Zettergren said.
Claes Fredriksson, CEO and founder of Liquid Wind, said the project would become Europe’s “largest” e-fuels production facility.
In March (2024), the company signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Umeå Energi and Wasaline to explore the supply of e-methanol to power Finnish and Swedish ferry operations.
The approval comes as the FlagshipONE plant in Örnsköldsvik undergoes construction. Having been acquired by Ørsted in 2022, construction started last year (2023), with production expected to start in 2025.
FlagshipONE is planned to produce 50,000 tonnes of e-methanol per year, capturing 70,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually.
Why hydrogen-based e-fuels are on the rise
© HIF Global | Haru Oni e-fuel plant
As transport-based oil demands begin to decline from 2026 due to efficiency improvements and the uptake of alternative, environmentally friendly methods¹, the mobility market has opened up to an array of solutions.
The alternative fuel-powered vehicle market is expected to keep increasing its hold on the automotive industry, valued at $634.5bn in 2022 and projected to grow at an annual growth rate of 10% between 2022 and 2032².
After seeing an increase in production, supply and end-use in 2023, the idea of e-fuels, or electro fuels, in the industry is a understood to be a realistic option, and they can be traced back to as early as the 1920s.
E-fuels are produced via the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis, which combines hydrogen with carbon dioxide (CO2) extracted from the air and therefore converted into the liquid energy carrier.
Named after its original German inventors, Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, the process provided liquid hydrocarbon fuels for the Germans during the Second World War. Now, however, it is being looked at as an pragmatic, cleaner alternative to fossil fuels…
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