The global renewable methanol project pipeline has reached 59.6 million tonnes of capacity across 281 operational facilities and projects under development, according to GENA Solutions’ Project Navigator Methanol database as of March 2026.

This total comprises 136 e-methanol projects with 23.8 million tonnes of capacity, 127 biomethanol projects with 24.7 million tonnes, and 18 low-carbon methanol projects with 11.2 million tonnes.

Four projects were added in the latest update, including three e-methanol developments and one biomethanol project. As a result, the renewable methanol pipeline expanded by around 0.4 million tonnes compared with February 2026.

The newly added projects are located in Europe, North America, China and India. GENA Solutions said China continues to dominate announced capacity in both biomethanol and e-methanol, accounting for 75% and 44% of their respective global pipelines. Europe represents around 32% of the global e-methanol project pipeline.

Five e-methanol projects with a combined capacity of about 0.8 million tonnes have now signed grant agreements under the EU Innovation Fund’s IF24 call. These include two integrated e-methanol-to-jet projects, DEZiR and ReSTart, together with three standalone e-methanol projects: LUXIA, RECLAIM and Pärnu P2X Hub (PP2XH).

GENA Solutions said at least three renewable methanol offtake agreements were signed over the past month. However, it added that securing long-term, binding and bankable offtake agreements remains one of the main obstacles preventing many projects from reaching final investment decision (FID). Regulatory uncertainty and relatively high production costs continue to discourage many potential buyers from committing to long-term contracts.

One way to address that challenge, according to the company, is vertical integration into methanol-consuming products such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), gasoline, dimethyl ether (DME) and chemical products. Although this approach still usually requires offtake agreements for the final product, it shifts exposure into end markets with different regulatory and competitive dynamics.

GENA’s Project Navigator Methanol currently includes 28 projects planning to use a substantial share of their methanol output captively. The fastest-growing segment is methanol-to-jet, which now includes 19 integrated projects with total methanol capacity of about 5.3 million tonnes. By contrast, the methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) pipeline has contracted, with two projects having shifted from gasoline production to methanol as the final product over the past year.