Delivering Syngas-to-Methanol Technology for Perpetual Next

Air Liquide Engineering & Technologies has signed a License and Engineering agreement with Perpetual Next to supply technology and engineering services for a new biomethanol facility in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. Designed to produce 220,000 tonnes of biomethanol annually, the plant will convert waste wood and other organic residues into a renewable alternative to fossil methanol for the chemical industry and maritime sector.

Integrated technology at industrial scale

As part of the agreement, Air Liquide will provide two key proprietary technologies to process the syngas generated from the organic waste:

• Rectisol™: Deployed to clean and purify the gas derived from the biomass residues.
• Lurgi™ Methanol: Utilized to convert the purified syngas into high-quality biomethanol.

The primary engineering focus for Air Liquide in this project is integrating these distinct processes to ensure they operate reliably together at full industrial scale, enabling the transition from organic waste to a viable market product.

Enabling the "Biomethanol Blueprint"

The Delfzijl facility serves as the first implementation of Perpetual Next’s Biomethanol Blueprint. This standardized industrial concept integrates torrefaction, gasification, syngas cleaning, and methanol synthesis into a replicable model. By standardizing the approach, the Blueprint aims to reduce development complexity and enable the serial development of large-scale biomethanol facilities.

The agreement between Air Liquide and Perpetual Next includes an option to extend the supply of Rectisol™ and Lurgi™ Methanol technologies to subsequent sites in the company's global development pipeline. Air Liquide’s established process technologies will help reduce project complexity for this replicable model, creating a scalable technology platform for future sites.

By combining the customer's feedstock strategy with Air Liquide’s engineering capabilities, this collaboration provides a concrete framework for pioneering new industrial processes and reducing the industry's reliance on fossil resources.