Welle Starts up Chinese Biomethanol Plant Using Biogas-Powered Electrolysis

The Xuzhou demonstration project has produced its first 99.9%-pure methanol by combining captured biogenic CO₂ with hydrogen made using electricity generated from biogas.

Welle Group announced that its biomethanol demonstration plant in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province had entered operation and produced its first methanol, with third-party testing confirming 99.9% purity after distillation.

The process uses agricultural waste — livestock manure and crop straw — as feedstock for anaerobic digestion to produce biogas. CO₂ is separated from the biogas stream. Electricity generated from the biogas powers a water electrolyser to produce what Welle describes as green hydrogen. The hydrogen and captured CO₂ are then fed into a catalytic synthesis unit to produce methanol.

Welle describes the process as a chain from agricultural waste to biogas, hydrogen and captured CO₂, and finally biomethanol.

Welle has not disclosed the electrolyser capacity, hydrogen production rate or methanol output of the demonstration unit. The company said it will use the project to further develop bioenergy applications. By the end of 2025, Welle said its signed high-value biogas utilisation projects represented about 350,000m³/day of biogas processing capacity, corresponding to roughly 250,000m³/day of biomethane.