The Business Prospect of Biomass to Methanol Development in Namibia: A Review

Abstract

In Indonesia, the demand for methanol as renewable alternatives or chemical feedstock has been rising significantly to address the shortage of its domestic fossil fuels need. In the future, Indonesia expects to increase their methanol production using gasification process to balance its domestic demand. This paper presents the business prospect of methanol production from overseas, i.e., Namibia using biomass (encroacher bush types) feedstocks. It is concluded that biomass is available as an alternative feedstock to generate pure methanol. In Namibia, biomass is one of the most abundant and easily accessed resources for energy uses. However, without appropriate business endorsement by the government, such as a well-designed policies and incentives, the project’s prospect is still limited and very costly to be implemented. The financial planning of investment, particularly in how to find the best technological design of methanol processing, is highly essential to gain the maximum net business profit.