GREEN METHANOL: FROM SUNLIGHT IN THE LAB TO THE TEST BENCH

Recently, Rolls-Royce has announced a genuine “world first”. The test (announced 27 Oct 2025) demonstrates an engine architecture that handles methanol’s different combustion characteristics and points toward near-term applications for the transport industry (Rolls-Royce, 2025). The engine was developed under the “meOHmare” research project which is funded under by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and energy (Global e-fuels, 2025) and represents a practical application of a fuel that can be renewable, safe to handle and nearly CO2-neutral when obtained from green sources. This achievement redirects applied technology to more climate-neutral roads; and offers customers an efficient way to reduce their CO2 emissions.

In PHOTOSINT the research is focused on developing solar-driven artificial photosynthesis to make hydrogen and methanol from sunlight, CO₂ and wastewater using earth-abundant catalysts and tuned reactor designs to boost solar-to-fuel efficiency. If this approach is able to be scaled and adapted successfully, it can help generating the low-carbon feedstock that a new generation of Rolls-Royce engines need.

Methanol is liquid at ambient conditions and easier to store and bunk if compared to other renewable fuels like hydrogen. Also, lower sulphur oxides and particulate matter emissions are generated when Methanol is burned in adapted engines for the obtention of energy. Still, its climate benefit depends entirely on how the methanol is produced. Renewable or CO₂-derived “green methanol” are the optimal fuel choices since methanol from fossil feedstocks gives limited Green House Gas advantage. Reviews and reports highlight the potential of methanol as fuel for marine transport applications, but they also stress that lifecycle emissions and feedstock sources are decisive in terms of health and environmental impact and cost efficiency (Tsanaktsidis et al., 2024).

On one hand PHOTOSINT and similar initiatives work upstream on producing green methanol from sunlight and CO₂. on the other hand, industrial applications such as the methanol-propulsion engine presented by Rolls-Royce represent a real downstream that can absorb large volumes of fuel. Together, the research and the final application, form a complimentary pathway to at least picture a greener future.

References:

1. WEBSITE: ROLLS-ROYCE – Media.
2. WEBSITE: Global e-fuels – News Data analysis supporting the E-fuels Industry.
3. ARTICLE – ENERGIE  - Methanol, a Plugin Marine Fuel for Green House Gas Reduction. (2024). Dimitrios Parris, Konstantinos Spinthiropoulos, Konstantina Ragazou, Anna Giovou and Konstantinos Tsanaktsidis.