SIBCON22: Maersk Boxship Methanol Fuel Tanks Will Cover Full Round Trips

Hinnemann (second from left) was speaking in a panel at Sibcon last week. Image Credit: Ship & Bunker

Container line AP Moller-Maersk's new methanol-fuelled boxships will be able to carry enough fuel to cover entire round trips.

The ability to complete full return voyages without refuelling will mean limited availability of methanol bunkers worldwide will be less of a problem for the company, Berit Hinnemann, head of green fuels sourcing at Maersk, said in a panel session at Sibcon last week.

"What we have chosen to do with the methanol vessels that we have ordered is that we have tanks sized for full round trips on them, so this gives us some flexibility," Hinnemann said.

The firm now has a total of 19 methanol-fuelled ships on order, the first of which will arrive in the middle of next year.

Hinnemann also said Maersk backs the idea of 'mass balancing' of green fuels. This term describes the idea of taking some green methanol in one part of the world and some fossil fuel-based methanol in another -- chemically identical products, but one having much lower well-to-wake emissions than the other -- and swapping the green status from one to the other.

The idea could help to increase availability of green methanol at the ports where shipping firms need it, without the need for extra tanker shipments to get it there. But significant global cooperation on regulations would be needed to get a system governing it up and running.

"We don't see a whole lot of sense in transporting green volumes around the world where this may not make sense," Hinnemann said.

"It will be very important, especially in the early years, to find good, pragmatic solutions where possible.

"There will need to be clear safeguards against double-counting and so on.

"In order to avoid unnecessary transport of small volumes of fuel, robust and consistent certification around the world will be critical."