The Levante
Loop.
Most green fuel projects solve one problem. A production site, a product, a buyer — three separate negotiations, three separate risks. The Levante Loop connects the CO₂ surplus on the demand side with the fuel deficit on the same side. One counterparty. One circular flow. The structure that makes both problems share a solution.
Every flow.
One structure.
The outer loop is the geographic cycle: CO₂ south, fuel north. The inner loop is the plant: power in, products out, water and heat recirculated. Dashed connections are modular — they can be swapped, added, or scaled independently.
The Loop is an
architecture, not a design.
Each node in the Loop can be configured, swapped, or scaled without rebuilding the whole structure. The same core — renewable power, electrolysis, synthesis — supports different product and feedstock combinations.
CO₂ shipped from European industrial sources via LCO₂ vessels. Combined with electrolytic H₂ at the plant to produce certified green methanol. The CO₂ supplier and the fuel offtaker are the same counterparty. This is the base Levante Loop.
CO₂ input requiredH₂ combined with N₂ from an on-site Air Separation Unit. No CO₂ input required and no maritime CO₂ logistics. The ammonia synthesis block operates independently of the CO₂ loop, making it viable at sites without a European CO₂ supply chain or as a standalone module.
ASU replaces CO₂ inletCO₂ sourced from local industrial production near the plant site rather than shipped from Europe. The methanol synthesis block is unchanged. The maritime CO₂ logistics module is replaced by a local pipeline or short-haul supply. Viable where a proximate industrial CO₂ source exists.
Maritime CO₂ loop optionalWhat stays
in the loop.
Methanol synthesis produces water as a byproduct (CO₂ + 3H₂ → CH₃OH + H₂O). This water is recovered, purified, and returned to the electrolyzer feedwater system — reducing the desalination load and the site's net freshwater draw.
Electrolyzer stacks and power electronics generate significant process heat. Rather than rejecting it to atmosphere, this heat feeds the desalination pre-heat train, reducing the energy input per cubic metre of freshwater produced.
PEM electrolysis produces oxygen at the anode at a ratio of approximately 8 kg O₂ per kg H₂. At Phase 1 scale this is roughly 1.2 MT/yr of O₂. It can be used internally for plant processes or sold to industrial buyers — either as a revenue stream or an operating cost offset.
The goal is not perfect closed-loop operation — thermodynamics prevents it. The goal is to minimise each external input by using every output stream productively before it leaves the site. Water recovery reduces seawater draw. Heat recovery reduces desalination energy. O₂ recovery reduces waste.
Across the three streams above, the plant's net seawater consumption drops by roughly 18% and desalination energy by roughly 12% compared to a plant that treats these as waste streams. At the scale of Phase 1, that is operationally material.
The same principle applies to power: the generation system is sized to balance at 92% plant utilisation, with a 12-hour H₂ buffer decoupling variable generation from steady-state synthesis. Nothing is over-built for peak; nothing is wasted at trough.