A.P. Moller-Maersk’s methanol dual-fuel box ship bunkers green biomethanol, kickstarting the liner giant’s plans to reach net-zero by 2040
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An ample supply of green biomethanol produced in the US is powering the maiden voyage of the first of A.P. Moller-Maerk’s 25 methanol dual-fuel container ships —and the first vessel of its type in the world.
The Danish shipping giant’s 2,100-TEU methanol dual-fuel feeder ship is sailing from South Korea to Copenhagen, following its handover from shipbuilder Hyundai Mipo Dockyard on 10 July. Globally-available green methanol for the box ship’s 21,500 km maiden voyage is being supplied by the OCI HyFuels brand of Euronext-listed OCI Global. The fifth largest methanol producer in the world, Amsterdam-based OCI Global confirmed that ISCC-certified green biomethanol was being supplied by the company’s facility in Texas.
To make the ship’s historic maiden voyage possible, the world’s first green methanol bunkering opertion was conducted in the Port of Ulsan, South Korea. OCI chief executive Ahmed El-Hoshy called the bunkering “a testament to the collaboration of our partners, including the Ulsan Port Authority, Maersk and transportation and storage partner, Odfjell, with the support of the Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. We look forward to continuing our crucial role in bunkering green methanol to the ship at each stage of its journey to Europe.”
Besides Ulsan, the Maersk box ship has multiple port calls planned on its voyage to Denmark, where the vessel will be named by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, godmother at the naming ceremony.
“OCI will also be supplying green methanol to the remaining bunkering stops in Singapore, Port Said in Egypt and Rotterdam. We cannot confirm the exact dates of these stops at this time, but the ship will reach Copenhagen by 14 September,” the fuel producer confirmed in an e-mail.
“By 2030, 25% of Maersk’s cargo by volume will be moved y green fuels”
OCI said it is obtaining the approvals and permits required to commercially bunker methanol in several ports on the ship’s voyage, including the Port of Rotterdam.
Next year, it will have a methanol-powered bunker barge available at the port. In February, OCI announced it was working with Unibarge to retrofit the first methanol-powered bunker barge for deployment at the port. Plans call for OCI Global to long-term charter the bunker vessel, following its retrofit. It will be deployed in the port in H2 2024.
OCI Methanol/HyFuels chief executive, Bashir Lebada, said: “Marine has been the main buzz around methanol for several years, so to secure the first real green sale and voyage is testament to our team’s hard work and further reinforces OCI HyFuels as the only large-scale green methanol solution for road and bunker.” Mr Lebada added: “This also highlights our distribution system and last-mile capabilities, where we will continue to leverage our road fuel logistics an fuel blending system and add to our green bunker barge fleet as demand grows.”
Global fleet of methanol dual-fuel vessels
2023 26
2024 51
2025 100
2026 133
2027 152
2028 156
Source: DNV Alternative Fuels
OCI Global said the voyage is an important milestone in the expansion of its renewable and low-carbon fuels business. With an increasing number of shipowners ordering and retrofitting their ships with methanol dual-fuel technology and the implementation of the FuelEU Maritime initiative, OCI anticipates incremental global demand for methanol to reach 4M tons per year in the next five years.
Through its OCI HyFuels brand, OCI said it is the largest green methanol producer globally. It is a leader in the development of green methanol vehicle fuels, placing up to 200,000 tons per annum equivalent and is growing its suite of low-carbon and green methanol products, including biomethanol, e-methanol, recycled carbon fuel (RCF) methanol, renewable ntural gas, ethanol and bio-MTBE.
On an annual basis, OCI has the capacity to produce about 3M tons of methanol, along with 7M tons of ammonia and 12M tons of nitrogen fertilser.
This feeder ship is the first of 25 methanol-powered dual-fuel box ships with capacities from 2,100- to 16,000-TEU ordered by Maersk, all of which will be in service by 2027. The Danish shipping giant, with a net-zero ambition by 2040, anticipates the first 19 vessels will generate 2.3M fewer tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually. By 2030, 25% of Maersk’s cargo by volume will be moved by green fuels.
Overall, there are 130 methanol dual-fuel vessels on order —79% (103) of which are container ships, according to DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insight platform.
“Burning green methanol, each ship would reduce CO2 emissions by 50,000 to 70,000 tonnes”
This does not include a significant number of retrofits. MAN PrimeServ, for example, signed an agreement to retrofit 15 ships from Seaspan and Hapag-Lloyd wth ME-LGIM engine technology. This agreement could grow to 60 box ships. Burning green methanol, each ship would reduce CO2 emissions by 50,000 to 70,000 tonnes, according to MAN PrimeServ.
Hapag-Lloyd has its sights set on net-zero by 2045.
Ramping up green and blue fuels
In conjunction with the anticipated demand generated by the energy transition and influx of methanol-powered ultra-large container ships, OCI is making significant capex investments in greenfield and brownfield projects to increase its production capacity of ammonia and methanol. Among these are the GasifHy project, which would add a gasification complex to the existing OCI Methanol Europe (formerly BioMCN) in Delfzijl, the Netherlands, to produce green methanol. The green fuel will be produced using household waste and sustainable biomass waste streams that would normally end up in landfills or incinerators, combined with green hydrogen produced at the facility.
Construction is underway on the Texas Blue Ammonia a landmark 1.1 mta blue ammonia plant in Beaumount, Texas, scheduled to start production in 2025. Linde will supply clean hydrogen and nitrogen under a long-term agreement with OCI. Linde is investing US$1.8Bn to build, own and operate an on-site complex which will include autothermal reforming with carbon capture, plus a large air separation plant. Linde will sequester more than 1.7M metric tons of CO2 emissions each year.
In April, Linde signed a long-term off-take agreement, under which, ExxonMobil will transport and permanently sequester 2.2M metric tons of CO2 annually.
Partnering with ADNOC in Fertiglobe, OCI is developing the Egypt Green ammonia facility, where the first tons of green ammonia from electrolysis were produced earlier this year.
