CO₂e Emissions Insights on Alternative Methanol Pathways in the Energy Transition

Methanol has been proposed as a low-carbon fuel and chemical feedstock for the energy transition, yet reported emissions outcomes vary widely and often rely on assumptions that do not reflect transitional energy system constraints, limiting deployment relevance. This thesis addresses that gap by developing a unified comparative emissions framework that treats hydrogen sourcing and electricity carbon intensity as variables. The framework is applied to biogenic methanol from forestry residues and recycled-carbon methanol from cement-derived CO₂, using carbon avoidance cost to assess deployment feasibility and showing how emissions performance is governed by upstream energy conditions, threshold behavior, and intrinsic scale constraints.