全球纪录诞生！8000吨绿色甲醇跨越山海，中国方案改写国际航运能源版图A World Record Is Born! 8,000 Tonnes of Green Methanol Cross Mountains and Seas as a Chinese Solution Rewrites the Global Shipping Energy Map

According to Green Fuel International Business Network, on August 17, at the Luhuashan South Anchorage of Shanghai Yangshan Port, as the last tonne of green methanol was steadily injected into the fuel tank of the "Osmium" vessel, a large methanol dual-fuel container ship of France's CMA CGM Group, Shanghai Electric, together with Shanghai International Port Group and CMA CGM, completed a batch green methanol refueling operation totaling 8,000 tonnes, successfully setting a new global record for the highest single green methanol refueling volume and writing a new footnote for the green and low-carbon development of international shipping.

The green fuel that set this record is mainly produced by Shanghai Electric's Taonan green methanol project. This large-scale smooth refueling means the project has officially entered a mature operation stage of continuous and stable production and batch delivery, fully confirming that domestically produced green methanol already has the hard capability to stably serve the international shipping market with scaled batch supply, and breaking down some barriers in the international green marine fuel supply chain.

From the production base in Taonan, Jilin, to transit storage at Dalian Port, and then to ship refueling at Shanghai Port, this cross-province, fully connected green fuel supply chain completed a large-scale real-world test. From Taonan to Yangshan Port, the birth of the 8,000-tonne refueling record was no accident; what supported it was the systemic capability accumulated by Shanghai Electric's Taonan green methanol project over a year of operation.

Taonan is located in western Jilin Province and is the core area of the Songliao clean energy base. It has abundant wind and solar resources and, as a major grain-producing county, ample biomass resources such as corn straw. Shanghai Electric has built here the world's first large-scale plant that couples green power and biomass to produce green methanol. It uses a complete set of independently developed process systems and does not rely on fossil feedstock; it synthesizes green methanol from local biomass resources such as straw and green hydrogen produced from green power under the action of catalysts.

In July 2025, Phase I of the Taonan green methanol project was officially put into operation, focusing on the three core production links of "hydrogen production, gasification and synthesis" and achieving multiple key technological breakthroughs. Ni Jianjun, general manager of Shanghai Green Genesis Technology Co., Ltd., acknowledged that there was no mature commercial case anywhere in the world to refer to, and that the team, in the extreme cold weather of Northeast China, worked things out by trial and error to overcome the coupling challenge between green power fluctuations and the stability of chemical production. It was precisely the "landmines stepped on" in the Phase I demonstration project that paved the way for subsequent scale development, proving that this technology route can not only "produce" but also "produce continuously and stably."

From the perspective of the overall national green methanol industry landscape, the mature operation of the Taonan project has effectively resolved a long-standing structural development contradiction in the industry. Northeast China possesses abundant wind and solar clean energy and biomass resources and is the optimal hinterland for green fuel production, while the core consumption and application market for green methanol is concentrated in the eastern coastal ports. The spatial mismatch between production and sales has always been a core pain point constraining the industry's scale development. This 8,000-tonne refueling record is also a high-standard stress test of the overall supply capacity of China's green methanol industry.

To further enhance the guaranteed supply capacity of green fuel and enrich the industrial product portfolio, Shanghai Electric, together with the National Green Development Fund and other industrial partners, has officially launched the construction of Phase II of the Taonan project. The project is planned to produce 200,000 tonnes of green methanol and 10,000 tonnes of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) per year, and is expected to be fully completed and put into operation in 2028. Compared with the Phase I capacity of 50,000 tonnes of green methanol, Phase II not only achieves a substantial increase in capacity scale, but also upgrades from a single green methanol product to a diversified product system of green methanol plus aviation fuel. In December 2025, the National Green Development Fund led the investment in Shanghai Green Genesis Technology Co., Ltd., established on the initiative of Shanghai Electric, to support the construction of Phase II of the Taonan project. The National Green Development Fund was jointly initiated and established by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and others, and is China's first national-level green development investment fund.

Zhao Kai, chief representative of the Beijing office of the Methanol Institute (Singapore), said that China is already "far ahead" in the green methanol field, not only holding about 60% of global planned capacity, but also supported by the world's most complete infrastructure and equipment manufacturing capability. In June this year, Shanghai, Jilin and Liaoning officially launched the joint construction of a "green fuel transport corridor," opening up the production-sales channel of "northern production, southern application." This "northern methanol shipped south" logistics artery is spawning a brand-new green industrial chain, providing a reliable Chinese solution for the implementation of China's "dual carbon" strategy and the decarbonization transition of the global shipping industry.