CARBON RECYCLING INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES FLEET TEST OF GEELY EMGRAND 7 METHANOL POWERED VEHICLES

A fleet test of six Geely methanol powered vehicles (MPVs) fueled by renewable methanol will be launched by Carbon Recycling International (CRI) in Iceland in April. The Geely Emgrand 7 vehicles are the first such vehicles to be tested in Europe.

CRI in collaboration with Geely and Reykjavik based automotive services company Brimborg will implement a comprehensive fleet test program, where Geely MPVs will be operated on Vulcanol®, CRI’s brand of renewable methanol produced since 2012 in Iceland. The fleet test program will be implemented in three phases over a period of up to three years with the initial testing phase starting in April 2016.

Geely has provided six Emgrand 7 vehicles, model year 2015 for the test. The vehicles sport a 1.8 L spark-plug ignited flex-fuel engine capable of operating on unblended methanol, with regular gasoline as pilot fuel.  For the duration of the test the vehicles will be operated on Vulcanol™, CRI’s brand of renewable methanol which is produced from recycled CO₂ emissions with Icelandic grid electricity, which is 100% from renewable sources. CRI, Geely and Brimborg will share technical results and plan to leverage the experience of this fleet test in joint promotion, marketing and commercial deployment of MPVs in Iceland and other European countries.

“CRI developed the power-to-methanol process with the vision that distributed low carbon intensity methanol production based on local feedstocks and energy has the potential to rapidly replace the use of fossil fuels, such as gasoline and diesel. Iceland presents optimal conditions both for the fuel production and deployment of vehicles which run on methanol from renewable power, which is essentially liquid electricity,” said KC Tran, CEO and co-founder of Carbon Recycling International. “Geely is a pioneer in developing this new generation of low emission vehicles and we are very excited about the opportunity to combine forces to test and demonstrate our fuel and Geely’s car technology in Iceland, with the broader European market in mind.”