Noxis Energy plans to add a gray and green methanol production plant at the Pecém Refinery in Ceará

The company's project aims to minimize the need to import the product and ensure domestic production of the fuel. Noxis Energy wants to use the Pecém Refinery, in Ceará, for the installation of a green and gray methanol production plant.

Noxis Energy's plans for the future of its Pecém Refinery project, in Ceará, are quite optimistic. The company has an initiative to install a methanol production plant, both green and gray, on site. In this way, the need to import the product will be minimized, in addition to taking advantage of the area's production potential to invest in the segment in the fuel sector.

New gray and green methanol production plant at the Pecém Refinery marks Noxis Energy's strategy to minimize imports of the product 

Noxis Energy, which develops the Pecém Petroleum Refinery (RPP), in Ceará, is studying the installation of a possible new plant aimed at producing methanol in the structure.

The company's main objective is to replace the import of the product with domestic production, using the high potential of the Pecém Refinery for this, since currently 100% of the product consumed in the country is imported.

The forecast is to produce both gray methanol, derived from natural gas, and green methanol, from the future offer of green hydrogen in Pecém.

The biodiesel and plastic industries can benefit greatly from the national production of methanol at the Pecém Refinery, as they are the ones that currently use the product the most.

In addition, the CEO of Noxis, Gabriel Debellian, says that the company is also looking at the potential of the maritime sector for projects in the coming years in the domestic market.

The idea is to use the synergy of part of the oil refinery's machinery to install a plant with the capacity to produce, at first, between 300 and 400 tons/year of gray methanol. For this, gas needs to cost less than US$5/MMBTU.

Current price of natural gas is still the main challenge for the company's methanol production plant at the Pecém Refinery 

Gabriel Debellian highlighted that the main challenge currently faced for the development of the methanol plant project at the Pecém Refinery are the high prices of natural gas in the domestic market.

Despite this, he believes that the international market may present a greater variation in values ​​throughout the second half of the decade, thus enabling more viable prices for the project.

In addition to importing liquefied natural gas (LNG), from the terminal to be built by Portocem in the port of Ceará, Noxis is also targeting opportunities for the acquisition of natural gas from Petrobras and Eneva, in Sergipe.

During the month of December 2022, Noxis Energy obtained authorization from the ANP to build a refinery with a processing capacity of 100 barrels/day in Ceará.

The refinery should cost US$ 1,3 billion — without the methanol plant, being a major project for the company in the coming years.

However, the refinery's methanol production potential could be one of the company's big bets in the coming years.

Get to know Noxis Energy 

Noxis Energy is a Brazilian company headquartered in the national oil capital, Rio de Janeiro. Founded by professionals with solid knowledge and experience in refinery management, trading, logistics and engineering, Noxis Energy works mainly in oil refining using the latest technologies, in plants installed in strategic locations along the Brazilian coast.