Trash-to-methanol plant advances

The energy company Repsol has decided to spend $835 million on a plant in Tarragona, Spain, that will make methanol from municipal solid waste. The facility will use a gasification process licensed from the Canadian firm Enerkem to convert 400,000 metric tons (t) of trash into 240,000 t of methanol and other chemical products. Repsol is also an investor in Enerkem. The decision is a vindication for Enerkem, which shut its demonstration plant in Edmonton, Alberta, in early 2024, citing unfavorable economic and regulatory conditions.