Four 100% methanol-powered trucks are now on the roads in Trinidad and Tobago – the first deployment of these trucks outside of China.
For Proman, the pilot is about much more than four vehicles: it is a chance to demonstrate methanol as a road fuel in a new market and explore how Trinidad and Tobago’s established methanol industry could support new opportunities at home and across the Caribbean.
For the first edition of Methanol Voices, we spoke with Anita Gajadhar, Proman’s Executive Director, Marketing and Logistics, following the launch of the trucks about what the pilot means for Trinidad and Tobago, the potential of methanol in road transport, and where the opportunity can go next.
Q: Trinidad and Tobago is already one of the world’s major methanol producers. What made road transport the natural next step for methanol?
AG: We have been making the case for many years about the viability of methanol as a cleaner-burning fuel for shipping, road transportation and power generation. I remember discussing this a decade ago with stakeholders in Trinidad, considering both the pollution from trucks, cars and buses burning diesel and the abundance of methanol produced in the country. You could say it has been a long road to get here!
But the pilot is about more than four vehicles. It shows how Trinidad and Tobago can leverage its established methanol industry to support cleaner transportation, strengthen energy security, create new export opportunities, and contribute to the global energy transition.
Q: Methanol has been used in road vehicles for many years, how did this pilot come about?
AG: It is true that methanol has been used to power road vehicles for decades, and there are tens of thousands of methanol-powered vehicles operating globally today. In fact, the first methanol-powered cars were introduced in the U.S. in the 1980s, with the first commercial vehicles running on methanol blends hitting the roads in the mid-1990s.
Today, China is leading adoption, primarily because vehicle manufacturers such as Geely have invested heavily in developing methanol-powered technologies.
We are delighted to see the first of these 100% methanol-powered Geely trucks in Trinidad, making them the first on the roads outside of China. This is thanks to a fantastic collaboration with Dumore Enterprises.
Q: Do you plan to expand the pilot to include more trucks, and what would need to happen to make Trinidad and Tobago a fully functioning methanol fuel market?
AG: Right now, we are focused on making sure that the pilot is a success. We are confident it will demonstrate methanol's technical and commercial viability as a transportation fuel – and then after that, yes, I hope methanol fuel use will expand further. But it will require uptake from other companies to make it a success, and investment in the supporting infrastructure needed to scale methanol-powered transportation both in Trinidad and Tobago and internationally.
Regulation is another important piece. While the Transport Commission granted permission to run these four trucks on public roads, if we are to expand the use of methanol in road transportation further, we will need the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS) to revise the fuel standards to allow for both methanol blends and 100% methanol fuels.
Q: Could the Trinidad model work elsewhere in the Caribbean?
AG: We believe that the pilot will provide valuable evidence of methanol's viability as a transportation fuel and help create opportunities for broader deployment in other markets over time. I think this is particularly exciting for other Caribbean nations who also rely heavily on expensive diesel imports.
Imagine if we could replace a fraction of those imports with cleaner burning methanol. That could make a huge impact on local air pollution, import costs and ultimately consumer fuel prices, particularly in light of methanol’s competitive price point versus diesel, which is subject to huge price hikes, driven by geopolitics – as we have seen again in recent months. It would also be great news for Trinidad and Tobago’s export market.
Q: When you describe methanol as a cleaner-burning transport fuel, what does that mean in practice?
AG: Methanol offers significant environmental advantages over conventional diesel, for example. When it burns, it produces near zero particulate matter – that’s the black smoke or soot that you see billowing out of exhaust pipes. It also emits less nitrogen oxides and less carbon dioxide. To date the pilot in Trinidad has seen the four methanol trucks travel over 17,000 km. In doing so, they avoided almost 4 tonnes of CO₂e emissions compared with conventional diesel trucks.
Conventional methanol produced from natural gas can also be blended progressively with lower-carbon and green methanol without modifications to the engine – making methanol a pathway fuel for the energy transition.
Q: You have also been making the case for methanol in power generation across the Caribbean. Could transport, power and marine demand eventually support the same methanol supply infrastructure?
AG: We have had positive discussions with several Caribbean governments and utilities regarding methanol power generation. These are large, long-term investment decisions and naturally require time and careful evaluation. We believe that methanol can offer these islands an affordable, reliable, cleaner, and more flexible energy solution, while creating a new demand for Trinidad and Tobago's methanol industry.
As a liquid fuel, methanol can use existing infrastructure, with minor modifications, so once the storage is in place, the fuel can be used on island for power generation and to refuel vehicles on the road and ships in the port.
We are going to continue to make that case. Meanwhile, Proman is ready with the methanol, and our marketing arm Valenz is ready to ship it.