In a major win for people who hate leftovers, Chinese natural gas giant Shenergy is opening a facility that will generate clean energy from kitchen food waste.
Interesting Engineering reported that the company will open a facility capable of converting surplus food into 70,000 to 100,000 tonnes of green methanol, an alternative fuel source that can be used for shipping.
The World Economic Forum expects green methanol production to reach 500 million tonnes in 2050, a significant increase from just 200,000 tonnes produced annually through 2023. The International Renewable Energy Agency estimates that this surge in green methanol could prevent more than 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution from being released into the atmosphere each year.
Interesting Engineering also reports that methanol can be used as a fuel in engines, and that green versions could theoretically reduce carbon dioxide pollution by 60% to 95% overall. And if you don’t have enough green methanol on hand, it can be easily mixed with diesel or gasoline without requiring any technological upgrades to your vehicle.
Green methanol can also be useful in producing other chemicals, potentially allowing it to be used in the chemical industry as an alternative to polluting energy sources.
Green methanol has the potential to be an important alternative fuel source that can help significantly reduce our dependence on fuels that harm the planet. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average car emits more than 10,000 pounds of carbon pollutants per year, and if green methanol were used in passenger vehicles alone, it could prevent the emission of more than 3.6 billion tons of air pollutants each year.
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Scientists around the world are making breakthroughs by using seawater, corn, and plastic in a variety of applications to create alternative fuels. Alternative fuel sources are already being used to power planes, trains, and large trucks that would normally emit tons of harmful pollutants by burning global-warming fuels.
And when Shenergy’s green methanol facility begins operations at the end of 2025, as the company’s vice president, Shi Pingyang, announced to the South China Morning Post, it will add another tool to our arsenal to fight the overheating of the planet.
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