Have you heard that new methanol plants being built in the United States are increasing natural gas consumption in the industrial sector? Here is the full article on Methanol fuel plans by federal government. Methanol plants are among the largest natural gas-consuming industrial end-uses and require natural gas both as feedstock and for process heat. The three new plants, expected to come on line in 2019 and 2020, have a combined nameplate capacity of about 3.3 million metric tons per year (MMmt/y) and will increase total U.S. methanol capacity to 9.4 MMmt/y, or 25,600 metric tons per day (mt/d), a 45% increase over current U.S. capacity.