The BeBOP project: Biomass to bio-/E-methanol through a breakthrough SOEC process

The BeBop project aims to revolutionize methanol production by using biomass as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. Methanol is an important raw material for the chemical industry, but is currently mainly produced from natural gas or coal, resulting in significant CO2 emissions.

BeBOP plans to develop an innovative plant that efficiently converts biomass and electricity into methanol. Using a novel technology that integrates an electrolysis cell, methanol production can be doubled and carbon efficiency increased to over 95% – conventional processes only achieve 40-45%. This new method significantly reduces CO2 emissions and enables the recovery of valuable by-products from biomass processing.

The project will be implemented in a pilot plant (technology maturity level 6), which could later be adopted by the European biomass industry on a larger scale. BeBOP reduces methanol production costs to below €250/t and could replace 10% of fossil methanol production, saving over 30 million tons of CO2 per year. In addition, the project creates jobs, strengthens the circular economy and improves the sustainability of the chemical industry in Europe.