Abstract: Methanol is an important platform chemical and fuel component that can be produced from biomass or using atmospheric CO2, thereby significantly improving its carbon neutrality. The production of such renewable methanol is currently more expensive than conventional production from fossil feedstocks. Nevertheless, some companies are willing to pay a premium for renewable methanol in order to meet their sustainability targets. This requires rigorous product certification to protect this emerging market for renewable methanol from the influx of cheaper fossil‑based products. In this paper, we propose a radiocarbon analysis method as a reliable tool for determining and quantifying the renewable nature of any methanol produced. Specifically, we have adapted and improved the liquid scintillation method, familiar from biodiesel testing, for assessing the renewability of methanol. We demonstrate that this practical method is highly reliable, as evidenced by a comparison with the results from the accelerator mass spectrometer, the gold standard in radiocarbon analysis. We examine a range of methanol samples (fossil, bio‑ and e‑methanol) and demonstrate that at least one commercially available ‘bio’ methanol can in fact only be considered ‘bio’ on a balance‑sheet basis, as it contains de facto fossil carbon. This highlights the potentially enormous practical relevance of the method presented here for future purchasing decisions, certification processes and regulatory approaches in the field of renewable methanol production.
Henseler et al. (Thu,) studied this question.