Asia/Pacific News
Japan's Asahi Tanker to Order Battery-Powered Bunker Barges
Tokyo-based Asahi Tanker has decided to build two battery-powered bunker barges with zero greenhouse gas emissions, the company said Friday.
The e5 Lab consortium -- consisting of Asahi Tanker, Exeno Yamamizu Corporation and MOL -- have designed the vessel, Asahi said in a stateement on its website.
The ships are due to be ready to enter into service between March 2022 and March 2023, the company said.
Upon their launch they well operate in the Tokyo Bay area, it said.
The ships will have a tank capacity of about 1,300 cubic metres each and a 3,500 kWh battery capacity, Asahi Tanker said.
Battery propulsion is one means of complying with the IMO's initial strategy on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as long as renewable zero-carbon electricity is available on land to charge the vessels' batteries.
But batteries are mainly an option for smaller ships, as the space required to put larger cargo ships on battery propulsion would make the design economically unviable.
