By LIU MINGTAI in Changchun and ZHOU HUIYING |
China Daily |
Updated: 2026-08-21 09:24
The second phase of Shanghai Electric’s Taonan Green Hydrogen Coupled Biomass Green Methanol and Fuel Integrated Project officially commenced construction on Thursday in Taonan in Northeast China’s Jilin province.
It will achieve an annual production capacity of 200,000 metric tons of green methanol and 10,000 tons of sustainable aviation fuel as the project reaches full completion and becomes operational by 2028.
“At that time, Taonan will have the capacity to supply large-scale green fuels for both marine and aviation fields, becoming a technologically advanced and production-capacity-concentrated green fuel production base in China,” said Ni Jianjun, general manager of Shanghai Lvchuang Jiyuan Technology Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Shanghai Electric Group.
“It will also provide solid production capacity support for the low-carbon transformation and clean energy self-supply in the national transportation sector.”
On Monday, Shanghai Electric Group successfully bunkered 8,000 tons of green methanol into a container ship at Yangshan Port in Shanghai, setting a global record for the largest single green methanol bunkering operation.
It also represents a significant breakthrough in the large-scale commercialization of green fuels in China.
The core fuel for the refueling was produced in Taonan, which has established a complete chain for transporting northern methanol to southern regions, relying on the national green fuel transportation corridor jointly built by Shanghai, and Jilin and Liaoning provinces.
“Currently, the global shipping market’s demand for sustainable marine fuels is continuously rising,” said Sun Yu, chairman of Lvchuang Jiyuan. “Green methanol, as a representative of low-carbon fuels, is becoming an important direction for the shipping industry to achieve carbon reduction.”
In July 2025, Shanghai Electric — leveraging Taonan’s abundant agricultural and forestry biomass and renewable energy resources — established the world’s first large-scale factory for producing green methanol through the coupling of green electricity and biomass.
It has created an innovative closed-loop production chain of green electricity, green hydrogen, biomass and green methanol by using a fully self-developed process system and major technical equipment.
“The project utilizes local straw, renewable energy, and other high-quality resources, relying on self-developed production processes,” said Sun. “The entire production system abandons traditional production paths and does not rely on any fossil or coal resources throughout the process, achieving clean restructuring of biocarbon and renewable hydrogen.
“The product’s full lifecycle carbon emissions are reduced by more than 65 percent compared to traditional coal-based methanol, and it can stably consume millions of tons of straw resources from surrounding counties each year,” he added.
The second phase of the project is a comprehensive upgrade, continuing the mature low-carbon development path.
“It will apply Shanghai Electric’s pioneering off-grid green electricity direct-connection model, integrating wind power, photovoltaics, energy storage, and biomass into a diversified clean energy supply system,” said Ni. “It features a new generation of green fuel turnkey solutions, integrating a series of independent core technologies.
“The overall technical level and carbon reduction benefits are among the top in the world,” Ni added.
Compared with the first phase, it will achieve systematic improvements in energy conversion efficiency, production cost control, and full lifecycle carbon reduction effects.
“The product structure expands to supply both marine and aviation fuels, extending the application scenarios of green clean energy from the shipping field to the aviation field, further broadening the industrialization and scenario development space of China’s green fuel,” said Ni.
In recent years, Taonan has closely aligned with the national “dual carbon” goals and deeply integrated into the provincial green energy development layout.
Leveraging the cluster development advantages of Shanghai Electric’s projects, Taonan has formed a complete system and chain, interfacing with international standards for green fuel supply.
In the future, Taonan will focus on frontier low-carbon industries such as green methanol, green hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel, continuously improving the construction of green low-carbon industry clusters, the local government said.
Contact the writers at zhouhuiying@chinadaily.com.cn
