Zhongneng Exclusive Interview | Ni Jianjun: China Green Alcohol Becomes the New Power for French Cargo Ships

(Source: China Electric Power News)

Reprinted from: China Electric Power News

Chinese Green Methanol Becomes New Power for French Cargo Ships

— Interview with Ni Jianjun, Vice General Manager of Shanghai Electric Shanghai Boiler Factory Co., Ltd.

Reporter Li Donghai, China Energy News Network

On March 5, at Shengdong Terminal, Yangshan Port, Shanghai, a French cargo ship named “Dafeng Ousim” docked for operations. While unloading cargo, the vessel successfully refueled with green methanol produced and supplied by Shanghai Electric’s Taonan project, as a new power fuel.

“Using green methanol as a new fuel for large cargo ships, its total life-cycle carbon emissions are reduced by more than 65% compared with traditional coal-based methanol. This fully meets the requirements of the International Maritime Organization’s ‘Net Zero Framework’ and regulations such as the EU FuelEU Maritime, providing the international shipping industry with a new path to break away from reliance on a single fossil fuel.” Recently, Ni Jianjun, Vice General Manager of Shanghai Electric Shanghai Boiler Factory Co., Ltd., said this in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Energy Media.

5 million tons of green methanol can cut 120,000 tons of CO₂

At present, the global energy landscape is undergoing profound changes. Turmoil in the Middle East, severe volatility in the prices of traditional fossil energy, and the fragility of supply chains have become increasingly prominent.

Against this backdrop, China’s green methanol has become a new power fuel for French cargo ships, offering a brand-new solution for the global energy transition.

In July 2025, Shanghai Electric’s first batch of production will be launched for the integrated demonstration project of wind power coupled with biomass green methanol in Taonan, Jilin, with an annual production capacity of 50,000 tons. These green methanols are transported from Taonan to Dalian via land-sea combined transport, then shipped from Dalian to Shanghai Port by sea, and finally completed with refueling for French Dafeng cargo ships at Shanghai Port.

According to Ni Jianjun, the project is one of the first-batch national pilot projects for tackling green liquid fuel technologies and industrialization, as well as the first project in China that uses green electricity to produce hydrogen coupled with biomass gasification to produce green methanol. Relying on the abundant wind, solar, and biomass resources in western Jilin and using core technologies developed independently, such as pure oxygen pressurized biomass gasification, flexible wind power hydrogen production, and methanol synthesis from CO₂-rich syngas, the project builds an integrated “green electricity—green hydrogen—green methanol” full-process system.

“Within the existing methanol production capacity layout, coal-based methanol still holds a dominant position. The carbon emissions per ton of coal-based methanol are equivalent to burning 240 million tons of standard coal. In the first phase, Shanghai Electric’s Taonan project produces 50,000 tons of green methanol annually, which can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 120,000 tons each year. This not only addresses the industry’s challenge of carbon reduction, but also opens a new path for China’s energy security,” Ni Jianjun said.

Compared with traditional coal-based methanol, Shanghai Electric’s Taonan project has three major highlights: First is feedstock substitution. The project uses abundant biomass resources such as straw in western Jilin, and converts them into syngas through gasification technology. The large-scale wind power installation capacity supporting the project provides pure green electricity for hydrogen production via electrolysis.

Second is process innovation. As the first green hydrogen coupled biomass gasification methanol project nationwide, it tackles the industry’s problem of imbalance in the hydrogen-to-carbon ratio in syngas. By precisely controlling the amount of green hydrogen injected, it achieves the optimal reaction ratio between carbon monoxide and hydrogen, enabling continuous and stable production.

The most breakthrough aspect is the certification system. The project became the first green methanol project in China to pass the entire process through the EU ISCC certification. This means that its carbon emission reduction data is recognized by the international shipping market. The procurement contract of French ship operator CMA CGM (Dafang) ship vessels verifies the feasibility of the business model of “Taonan production—land-sea intermodal transport—refueling at Shanghai.”

International carbon prices reflect the environmental premium of green methanol

Ni Jianjun believes that Shanghai Electric’s green methanol goes all the way to Europe, representing a comprehensive breakthrough over technology barriers and industry pain points.

With no mature experience to draw upon, the project overcame the technical difficulties of wind-power hydrogen production coupled with biomass gasification to produce green methanol. It completed full-chain verification in extremely cold environments and built an industrial closed loop in which “technology R&D breakthroughs and commercial implementation advance in parallel.”

“This is also a positive move in the ‘hand-in-hand’ efforts of Jilin and Shanghai to promote high-quality development of green hydrogen and green ammonia,” Ni Jianjun said. The project has perfectly connected Jilin’s “Jihydrogen into the sea” strategy with Shanghai Port’s layout of green fuels. “According to relevant plans, Jilin will transport green methanol produced from wind and solar resources in the western region through the Liaoning port cluster to the Yangtze River Delta. Shanghai Port has clarified that by 2030, the share of green methanol among international shipping fuels will be no less than 10%, with an annual demand of about 3 million tons.”

“The initial batch of 50,000 tons of annual production capacity is clearly not enough compared with Shanghai Port’s green methanol planning target. We are accelerating the early commissioning of the 200,000-ton green methanol project as soon as possible,” Ni Jianjun said.

However, Ni Jianjun admitted that while breakthroughs have been made in the green methanol production technology, the industry still faces the reality of high costs. Its production cost is 2 to 3 times that of coal-based methanol. The Taonan project’s total investment is 5.6 billion yuan, and when calculated per ton of production capacity, the investment exceeds 10,000 yuan, far higher than the 3,000–4,000 yuan level of traditional projects.

Second, the collection of feedstock is also a major constraint. To ensure continuous production of 50,000 tons of methanol, 200,000 tons of straw need to be processed every year. This not only tests the maturity of rural waste collection and storage systems, but also faces feedstock competition from industries such as biomass power plants and paper mills.

In addition, the market mechanism urgently needs improvement. At present, the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism has included methanol within the scope of taxation, but China’s domestic carbon market has not yet covered chemical products, lacking a carbon price transmission mechanism, making it difficult for green methanol’s environmental premium to be reflected. Shanghai Electric’s green methanol can be sold overseas largely thanks to support from international carbon prices.

In response, Ni Jianjun proposed three suggestions: first, improve the policy support system, increase support for the green fuel industry, include green chemical products within the carbon market coverage, and establish a carbon price transmission mechanism to realize a commercial closed loop for products; second, improve the feedstock collection and storage system for biomass, strengthen R&D on technologies for resource utilization of rural waste, connect the “last mile” of feedstock supply, ensure feedstock needs for large-scale industrial development, guide production capacity layout by the government, and avoid unhealthy competition for feedstock resources within the industry; third, accelerate the development of domestic green fuel certification systems, promote mutual recognition with international standards, and provide institutional safeguards for industry participation in global competition.

Ni Jianjun said that this year, green fuels were written into the government work report for the first time and clearly identified as an important direction for the development of new productive forces. This refueling of green methanol is a vivid example of national policy moving from “top-level design” to “industrial implementation.” Relying on the wind, solar, and other resources in western Jilin, the project has connected the full industrial chain of “green electricity—green hydrogen—green methanol,” effectively addressing the problem of on-site utilization of new energy. The green methanol produced achieves significant carbon reduction over its full life cycle and meets international certification standards. This indicates that China’s green fuel industry now has the capacity for large-scale, commercial development, and can provide strong “Chinese confidence” for the global aviation, shipping, and other hard-to-abate sectors.

Editor: Liu Chuq i

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