MSC Hedges Bets on Alternative Bunker Fuels

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Tuesday October 6, 2020

Container shipping company MSC has highlighted its multifaceted approach to alternative bunker fuels, favouring hydrogen-based solutions in the longer term but also taking on other alternatives while waiting for zero-carbon options to become viable.

"There's no one single solution to decarbonise shipping; we need a range of alternative fuels at scale and we need them urgently," Bud Darr, executive vice president for maritime policy and government affairs at MSC, said in a statement on the company's website Monday.

MSC is already using up to 30% biofuel blends on shipments out of Rotterdam, the company said, and its new Gülsün Class of giant container ships comes with the option to convert to LNG power in future.

But over the longer term the company is exploring the viability of hydrogen-based fuels.

"Industry partnerships could help accelerate the development of clean hydrogen for the benefit of the entire container shipping industry," the company said in the statement.

"Despite some significant challenges to overcome mainly related to density, volume and safe handling, MSC is in favour of further R&D efforts to produce it in a greenhouse gas neutral way and to develop it at scale, along with other fuels that may derive from it."

Earlier this year MSC also offered a carbon offsetting option to its customers.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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