The shipping fuel challenge
Shipping is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise. Renewable methanol is emerging as one of the most practical low-carbon fuel pathways, but its economics depend on more than simply producing methanol. The wider opportunity lies in how hydrogen is produced and whether the underlying technology can improve the economics of the whole system.
Why this matters
HAMR Energy’s hybrid methanol plant design combines forestry residues with low-carbon hydrogen to produce renewable methanol at industrial scale. For Supercritical, this programme is about more than hydrogen supply. It shows how the same electrochemical platform can integrate into broader fuel and chemical pathways, improving performance at system level rather than at a single unit operation.
The first phase of the programme evaluated the integration of Supercritical’s high-pressure electrochemical platform into HAMR’s methanol plant. The early outcome is that integrated higher pressure hydrogen supply can reduce methanol cost through energy efficiency gains.
The HAMR programme
HAMR Energy is developing Portland Renewable Fuels in Victoria, Australia – a project designed to convert forestry residues and low-carbon hydrogen into 300,000 tonnes of low-carbon methanol per annum for shipping and aviation fuel markets.
Backed by Australian and UK government support, the programme was established to assess whether integrating Supercritical’s platform into HAMR’s plant design could reduce the cost of low-carbon liquid fuel production and support a pathway toward pilot deployment.
From study to commercial pathway
This programme demonstrates how Supercritical’s platform can move beyond standalone hydrogen supply into integrated industrial fuel production. Methanol is an important step in that expansion – showing how the platform can create value through its role inside larger industrial systems where efficiency, pressure, and integration shape the economics.