• China has successfully completed its first field demonstration of transporting methanol through an operating refined oil pipeline, validating a new approach to long-distance green methanol distribution.
• The trial could significantly reduce infrastructure costs and accelerate the development of a national transportation network for green methanol, a key hydrogen carrier and low-carbon fuel.

China has completed the country's first successful field trial of transporting methanol through an existing long-distance refined oil pipeline, marking an important milestone in the commercialization of green methanol logistics.

Conducted on a 200-kilometre section of the National Pipe Network Group's Gansu-Shaanxi refined oil pipeline, the project demonstrated that methanol can be sequentially transported alongside gasoline and diesel using existing infrastructure.

During the trial, 1,000 cubic metres of fuel-grade methanol were injected in two separate batches after pipeline compatibility assessments and station safety upgrades were completed. Testing covered both high- and low-flow operating conditions, including pipeline start-up and shutdown scenarios, while the methanol-gasoline mixing section remained below one kilometre and methanol contamination throughout the transport process was kept below 0.8%. The successful demonstration establishes a practical engineering solution for the safe, efficient and large-scale transport of green methanol across China.

Using existing refined oil pipelines instead of constructing dedicated methanol pipelines could reduce infrastructure investment by more than 80% while shortening project construction schedules by 50% to 70%, substantially lowering both costs and environmental impacts.

The technology is particularly significant because methanol is increasingly viewed as both a clean fuel and a liquid hydrogen carrier capable of storing and transporting hydrogen safely under ambient conditions.

With China's methanol production concentrated primarily in the northwest while demand is centered in eastern and southern coastal provinces, long-distance transportation has remained a major obstacle to industry growth.

The successful field trial lays the groundwork for a future "West-to-East" green methanol transport corridor while supporting broader efforts to modernize China's energy infrastructure. It also builds on previous National Pipe Network Group achievements, including long-distance carbon dioxide transport, hydrogen blending in natural gas pipelines and pure hydrogen pipeline testing, further expanding the country's capabilities in transporting next-generation energy carriers.

Source:   Fuel Cells Works