Celanese launches Texas CCU project

Global chemical manufacturer Celanese said January 9 it had begun operating a carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) project at its Clear Lake, Texas site as part of its Fairway Methanol joint venture with Japan’s Mitsui & Co.

The project is expected to capture 180,000 tonnes/year of CO₂ from industrial emitters and produce 130,000 tonnes/year of low-carbon methanol.

CCU takes CO₂ industrial emissions that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere from both Celanese and third-party sources and applies reduced-carbon-intensity hydrogen to chemically convert the captured CO₂ into a methanol building block used for downstream production, Celanese said.

This low-carbon input is then used to reduce traditional fossil fuel-based raw materials and can help produce a wide range of end products across most major industries.

“With this project, our Celanese value chain can convert CO₂ waste into products for a wide array of end-markets, including consumer goods like adhesives, packaging, toys, paints, coatings and more,” said Mark Murray, senior vice president, Acetyls at Celanese. “Our globally-integrated value chain positions us to provide a wide range of solutions with carbon capture content across both our integrated Acetyl Chain as well as other methanol derived products like acetal copolymers (POM).”