Germany Starts Producing Climate-Neutral Marine Methanol from Wastewater

Globally the shipping sector contributes around 706 million tons of CO2 emissions each year, around 3 percent of the total. The majority of containership vessels, oil tankers, and bulk carriers continue to use heavy fuel oil or marine diesel emitting substantial amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

A German start-up now aims to revolutionize the industry. In the southern-German city of Mannheim the first production facility of its kind in the world, using wastewater to produce clean methanol, began operation this week. The plant converts biogas from the local water treatment facility with the use of green hydrogen into methanol. 

The German government subsidizes the facility with a small grant of $2.2m. The consortium operating the plant consists of ICODOS GmbH, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, a public research university in the region, and the city’s wastewater management company. 

“We are proud to present the world’s first plant that converts wastewater into sustainable marine fuel using electricity,” explains Dr. Vidal Vazquez, Technical Managing Director of ICODOS. 

In the first phase the facility called “Mannheim 001” aims to produce 50 liters of methanol per day. But already in 2026 a follow-up project under construction near Paris will produce 15-times the volume. To power container ships a further upscaling of the project will be needed. Modern container vessels consume up to 250 tons or 250,000 liters of fuel per day.

“The new plant impressively demonstrates how research and entrepreneurial spirit can produce practical solutions for the sustainable transformation of our economy,” says Professor Thomas Hirth, Vice President Transfer and International Affairs at KIT.

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