EMEA News
Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Venture Invests in Startup Eyeing Cheaper Methanol Bunker Production
Blue World Technologies (BWT), a Danish start-up focused on methanol as bunker fuel, has secured EUR 37 million ($36.9m) in funding, business news provider Bloomberg reports.
The funds are to scale up production of a new system that could power large ships using methanol. Breakthrough Energy Venture, backed by billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, is among the funders.
Methanol is one of a number of alternative bunker fuels under development in the shipping sector.
According to BWT, using a fuel cell can save as much as 30% of the fuel compared to a combustion engine. However, methanol bunker fuel will be more expensive than other types of fuel.
""Our place in the world is to lower that green premium," BWT's chief executive Anders Korsgaard was quoted in the report as saying.
The BWT process, which in the early stages of development, produces water and carbon dioxide only, which can then be compressed, stored and later combined with hydrogen again to make more methanol. The process could prove to be a cheaper and cleaner way to deploy methanol, the report said.
