Canada's StormFisher Hydrogen acquired biomethanol developer Recyclage Carbone Varennes (RCV), which had sought protection from creditors, and will turn the existing infrastructure into what it says will be North America's first large-scale low-carbon methanol plant.
StormFisher plans to turn the partially built facility into a producer of RFNBO-compliant methanol made from green hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide, the company said on 15 October. RCV's project would have relied on biomass gasification.
RCV filed for bankruptcy in March after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and provincial support through direct payments and subsidies. Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) had agreed to provide the project, a joint venture between Shell Canada, Suncor, Swiss methanol developer Proman, and the province of Quebec, with C$241mn ($272mn) to build a biorefinery and an electrolyzer that would convert forest biomass and other non-recyclable residual materials into biomethanol, according to the CIB website. Quebec's Ministry of Economy and Innovation has invested a total of C$364.5mn.
According to earlier descriptions of the project, Accelera by Cummins was chosen to deliver a 90MW proton exchange membrane electrolyzer that would work in concert with technology provided by Enerkem. StormFisher, which did not provide a price for the transaction, did not respond to questions seeking more information about the deal. Accelera by Cummins and other RCV stakeholders did not immediately respond to questions.
The project is designed to produce 72,000 metric tonnes/yr of low-carbon methanol for use in maritime, aviation and chemicals markets and is scheduled to be in operation in 2028, StormFisher said.
