Carbon Recycling International

Carbon Recycling International (CRI) is an Icelandic limited liability company which has developed a technology designed to produce renewable methanol, also known as e-methanol, from carbon dioxide and hydrogen, using water electrolysis or, alternatively, hydrogen captured from industrial waste gases. The technology is trademarked by CRI as Emissions-to-Liquids (ETL)[1][2] and the renewable methanol produced by CRI is trademarked as Vulcanol.[3] In 2011, CRI became the first company to produce and sell liquid renewable transport fuel produced using only carbon dioxide, water and electricity from renewable sources.[4]

History

CRI, incorporated in 2006, was founded by Fridrik Jonsson, Art Shulenberger, Oddur Ingolfsson, and KC Tran.[5]

EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program

MefCO2

Funded under the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Program, MefCO2 was a technology development project that ran from 2014-2019. The project demonstrated the application of CRI’s ETL technology, which produced methanol from CO2 emissions from a thermal power plant and electrolytic hydrogen generated from surplus renewable energy.[20]

The CO2-to-methanol production unit was integrated into the RWE Niederaussem thermal power plant and began production in early May 2019. The system successfully demonstrated the technology’s ability to operate with intermittent and fluctuating renewable energy supply as well as heterogeneous CO2 sources. The plant delivered 1 ton of methanol per day to a wastewater treatment facility upon the project’s completion.[20]

CirclEnergy

The CirclEnergy project, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 program, aimed to address the challenges of integrating renewable power into the European power network, such as the oversupply of energy caused by the intermittent nature of solar and wind power.The project looked at using CRI’s ETL technology can convert surplus power from intermittent renewable energy sources into renewable methanol. The project demonstrated renewable methanol use as an effective storage and carrier of renewable energy.[21]

FReSMe

CRI was awarded an 11 million EUR grant to implement CRI’s ETL technology in the Swerea MEFOS facility in Luleå, Sweden. The project ran from 2019-2020 and adapted the system module used in the previous MefCO2 project to convert residual blast furnace gases from steel manufacturing into methanol.[22]

This project demonstrated the versatility of CRI’s ETL technology by utilizing CO2 and hydrogen recovered from diverse waste streams. The low-carbon methanol, produced periodically in 2020, was utilized by Stena, a Swedish ferry operator and consortium partner that operated the world's first methanol-fueled passenger ferry, the Stena Germanica.[22]

Gamer

The GAMER project received funding of 3 million EUR with the aim of advancing high-temperature electrolysis technology. CRI was part of the consortium that worked on developing a new type of high-efficiency electrolyser with a novel solid electrolyte.

The project aimed to overcome challenges with electrolysis technologies, including instability and thermal stress. The Proton Ceramic Electrolyser was designed to be thermally coupled with waste heat sources in industrial plants, enabling the system to achieve significantly higher combined electrical and heat efficiency. The project was successfully completed in 2022.[23]

type	Private
industry	Renewable fuels
foundation	2006
location	Reykjavík, Iceland
key people	Lotte Rosenberg CEO Bjork Kristjansdottir COO Omar Sigurbjornsson (Sales and Marketing)
products	Renewable methanol
homepage	Carbonrecycling.com

Carbon Recycling International

History

Renewable methanol

Production

Plants

George Olah plant

Shunli

Sailboat

EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program

MefCO2

CirclEnergy

FReSMe

Gamer

Legislation

Impact

Future projects

See also

External links

References