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Advanced Methanol Amsterdam plant will convert non-recyclable waste into methanol

| By Mary Bailey

Gidara Energy has announced its first advanced biofuels facility in Amsterdam; Advanced Methanol Amsterdam (AMA). The plant will convert non-recyclable waste into advanced methanol. This product will be used for fuel blending, and therefore meets governmental objectives to achieve CO2 emission reductions as defined in the RED II and translated in national legislations. The produced renewable fuel will replace fossil-based fuels, creating significant carbon savings.

The AMA facility will utilize the HTW technology that has been both technically and commercially proven for multiple decades in global industrial-scale facilities using biomass and waste (RDF) as feedstock. In 2019, Gidara Energy acquired the commercially proven HTW biomass-gasification technology (originally developed by RWE and Thyssenkrupp) to convert non-recyclable waste to valuable end-products. Gidara Energy aims for near-zero emission by minimizing overall waste throughout the entire value chain and process integration.

methanol

GIDARA Energy’s first plant is Advanced Methanol Amsterdam (AMA) based in the Port of Amsterdam. AMA includes a knowledge center, with a testing facility and pilot plant and a commercial plant producing advanced methanol (Source: Gidara Energy)

 

Gidara Energy emphasizes maximizing reliability by utilizing the same size and configuration as applied in previous HTW facilities, which were operational for more than 10 years.

The AMA facility will produce around 87,500 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of renewable methanol by converting non-recyclable waste equivalent to that of 290,000 households yearly, which otherwise would be landfilled or incinerated.

Wim van der Zande, CEO at GIDARA Energy said: “We are in a unique position owning a proven gasification process with a track-record for this application, which eliminates any major process or technology risks. We purposely selected this plant’s capacity and configuration because of the experiences in operated facilities, matching local feedstock availability and local blending capacity. Our focus is to establish the AMA facility and use the same configuration at future locations in The Netherlands, Europe and North America”.

The AMA facility will be built in the BioPark, an industrial location in the Port of Amsterdam developed especially for producers of renewable fuels. The state-of-the-art AMA facility will include a knowledge center (with a testing facility and pilot plant) as well as the commercial-scale plant using Gidara Energy’s patented HTW technology.