Johnson Matthey Collaborates with Nextchem to Provide Waste-To-Methanol Technology

Johnson Matthey, a globally acknowledged name for providing cutting-edge technological solutions, and NextChem’s subsidiary unit MyRechemical, allocated to carry on operations in the field of waste-to chemicals technologies, have teamed up together for commercially developing a novel ‘waste-to-methanol’ technology. As the name suggests, this technology will make use of dry non-recyclable wastes, that are usually subjected to incineration or dumped into landfills, to undergo chemical transformation into syngas that will be used as raw material to produce methanol. 

Methanol is a versatile organic solvent that has multitudinous applications in consumer products like cosmetics, furniture, carpeting, etc., and industries like paints and coatings, construction, automotive. Methanol generated from this technology can typically be used to produce low carbon additives for blending of fuels in automotive, and as an intermediate for the production of chemicals like formaldehyde, adhesives, resins, plastics, fibres and insulations.

Methanol has also gained popularity in scientific research where it is being exploited as a feed to generate clean electrical energy from its electro-oxidation reaction in a fuel cell that holds potential application in future portable electronics.

The proposed technology has high commercial and environmental significance due to its viability for utilization of industrial and municipal wastes (that mostly include plastic products) thereby contributing towards reduced carbon footprint.

The implementation of the ‘waste-to-methanol’ technology will be done by the amalgamation of Johnson Matthey’s established syngas-to-methanol technology with MyRechemical’s waste-to-chemical process.

As per ChemAnalyst, the alliance of two pioneer technological providers for the development of sustainable technology is an effective business strategy amidst the increasing environmental pollution and the intensification of government laws across the world. Globally, methanol has high demand in the automotive sector that consumes almost one-fourth share of the total production and is also the major driver for the increasing methanol demand by a CAGR of over 5%. By turning methanol into part of the circular economy, this technology has a bright future with a growing preference for clean automotive fuels. This technology could serve as a torchbearer for many companies to adopt sustainable production techniques.