Kaveh Methanol Project, with 7 million tons of production capacity per year, is the world’s biggest methanol project being completed at Deir Port, Busheh Province, southern Iran.
Feeding of the project with gas is a main step in its operation which will transform the province’s industrial activities.
IGAT-6 can supply a million cubic meters of gas per hour and is constructed for feeding Kaveh facility as well as two other industrial units, namely Siraf Energy Petrochemical Plant and Fateh Kimia Petrochemical Plant in Bushehr Province.
Ready for startup, Kaveh Methanol Project creates 1,200 direct jobs and can offer 7,000 tons/day of methanol.
Funded by a consortium of Iranian banks of Tejarat, Mellat and Industry and Mine, the plant is envisaged to process two million tons of methanol per annum of A-A grade methanol.
Iran is planning to raise its methanol output to 25mt/y within the next five years to gain a toehold in the international market as the biggest supplier of the product. Tipped as an alternative fuel in ships, the fuel is already used in light aircraft and racing cars and its global demand is rising.
Methanol is seen as a green fuel while being more abundant and cheaper than diesel. It is even preferred over liquefied natural gas (NLG). Iran currently has a capacity to produce 60 million tons of petrochemicals, which is expected to expand to 180 million tons in the coming years as a number of projects are coming on stream.
Officials say the country is on course to earn as much as $70 billion per year once the projects start production.