HANSA 11-2022

SCHIFFFAHRT | SHIPPING
Scale is key to embracing alternative fuels
As the world and the global industries head towards carbon neutrality by 2050, energy
majors and ship owners are still trying to reach a common ground regarding alternative
fuels. By Patrick Lee
An important aspect of CMA CGM’s
strategy is the use of LNG
© CMA CGM
While liquefied natural gas (LNG) is becoming more available
as a marine fuel worldwide, the picture is less certain for methanol,
biofuels, ammonia and hydrogen, which have been touted
as alternative fuels. At the Singapore International Bunkering Conference
(SIBCON), CMA CGM’s vice-president for bunkering and
energy transition, Farid Trad, said that while the French liner operator
already has LNG-fuelled container ships, there is no single fuel
that can achieve decarbonisation alone. Farid said, »We believe that
there’s no one solution. The needs for shipping are so massive that
we need to work on LNG, biofuels and methanol.«
In September, CMA CGM launched a 1.5 bn $ fund to support
the production of alternative fuels. The Marseilles-based company
has 31 e-methane ready ships in its fleet and it we will have 77 such
ships by end-2026. In August, CMA CGM ordered six 15,000 TEU
methanol-fuelled ships for delivery in 2025.
Shell Marine president Melissa Williams said that her company
will produce and transport green ammonia and hydrogen, but there
are cost concerns: »We will produce green ammonia and hydrogen,
but we will not use these for bunkering at this time. When you talk
about all the things that are needed to bring these to the market,
that is one challenge that we haven’t overcome at this point, but
we’re open to technological advances.«
For this reason, Denmark-based AP Moller Maersk group is
looking at methanol as a decarbonisation solution, and its substantial
orderbook for methanol-powered ships is a strategy to encourage
production of the fuel.
Berit Hinnemann, AP Moller-Maersk’s Head of Decarbonisation
Business Development and interim Head of Green Fuels Sourcing,
emphasized that while technology isn’t an issue, there is still inadequate
output of biomethanol. She said, »For projects to be developed,
the demand has to be there so our approach was to order
vessels, knowing full well that very small amounts (of green methanol)
are produced today and this will require massive efforts to
scale it up.«
Maersk Line has 19 methanol-fuelled boxships on order, including
six 17,000 TEU vessels ordered at Hyundai Heavy Industries on
5 October.
Hinnemann continued, »Our approach is to work with companies
in different parts of the world who are developing green methanol
projects for our offtake, to enable the companies to move
forward with green methanol projects. We have a feeder vessel operating
from next year onwards and a European energy company
will develop the green methanol for it. For large vessels, we intend
to fuel them with green methanol as soon as we can. We know that’s
a challenge but we’re working intensely on this with our partners.«
That is not to say that no ship owners are experimenting with
biofuels.
Stena Bulk’s manager for sustainability and transformation,
Peter Bjorkborg, said the tanker owner has been trialling biofuels,
although its ships have been using methanol as a clean solution
since 2015.
Bjorkborg said, »We believe biofuels work and we should be
able to get past the trial phase. We’re not concerned about the
technological issues, we’re not concerned about operational issues
either, more about scaling, more about the commercial side
of things, standards. If we can get those things to move forward,
30 HANSA – International Maritime Journal 11 | 2022