Applications
What methanol is used for
Most methanol never reaches anyone as methanol. Knowing which demand stream is moving is how you understand why your price changed.
Methanol is a building block before it is anything else. The majority of global production never reaches an end user as methanol at all — it is converted into formaldehyde, acetic acid, olefins and fuel components, and reaches the world as chipboard, paint, plastic and petrol. Understanding which of those demand streams is moving is how you understand why your price changed.
This section covers the applications that matter to UK buyers, both as context for the market and as practical guidance where the application shapes the specification. A page here will tell you which grade an application typically calls for and which impurities it is sensitive to — the parts that turn a market fact into a purchasing decision.
Key points
- Global methanol demand was around 90 million tonnes as of the early 2020s, dominated by chemical derivatives rather than direct use.
- Formaldehyde is the single largest derivative, feeding engineered wood, resins and insulation.
- Chinese methanol-to-olefins capacity has been the biggest driver of demand growth, and pushed methanol growth well above GDP growth.
- Marine fuel is the demand story that changes the next two decades, with analysts projecting methanol as a marine fuel approaching 15 million tonnes a year by 2050.
- Application determines specification. Fuel blending tolerates impurities that would fail a pharmaceutical or electronics-adjacent process outright.
Formaldehyde and resins
The largest derivative: how the conversion works, what it demands of the feedstock, and why it tracks construction.
Methanol as an industrial solvent
Cleaning, degreasing, extraction and formulation — and the impurity limits each application actually cares about.
Methanol as a marine fuel
Why shipping picked methanol, what the orderbook looks like, and what it means for shore-side supply.
Biodiesel production
Transesterification, the methanol requirement per tonne of FAME, and recovery economics.
Wastewater denitrification
Methanol as a carbon source in biological nutrient removal, and what water companies specify.
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