Paris-based  Total (NYSE: TOT) announced today that it inaugurated a demonstration plant in Feluy, Belgium, to make plastics from methanol.

The company said the 45 million Euro integrated unit is the world's first application of the technology, which will produce olefins and polyolefins from methanol, helping to diversify the source of plastic feedstock.

"Given that energy demand will continue to grow, petroleum supply will be tight and the prices should stay at a high level, we firmly believe that the methanol to olefins process will play a vital role in the production of petrochemical products in the future," said François Cornélis, president of chemicals at Total, in a statement.

The process uses technology from UOP, a subsidiary of Morris Township, N.J.-based Honeywell International.

"Integrating the methanol to olefins and olefin cracking processes makes it possible to produce light olefins at a very reasonable cost."

Total said the petrochemicals industry currently relies on oil and natural gas derivatives, naphtha or ethane, to produce olefins, which are subsequently converted into polyolefins, the raw material for plastics.

The company said the pilot plant was designed to assess the technical feasibility and cost effectiveness of two integrated processes that produce olefins and subsequently polyolefins from methanol, which Total said can be obtained from natural gas, coal or biomass."

We've reported previously on the coal conversion expertise of UOP-Honeywell. And, we've no idea why the French company, TOTAL, are approaching this Belgian facility as a yet another "pilot plant", when China is now starting to exploit the vast potential of methanol, derived from coal, in plastics manufacturing in a very serious way.

But, note: In Belgium, this French company are utilizing US technology to process methanol obtained from "coal or" carbon-recycling "biomass" into valuable, very useful, carbon-sequestering products.