Treehugger’s Sami Grover noted last year that A.P. Moller-Maersk—usually just known as Maersk— had ordered eight large methanol-powered container ships from Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). We followed up with the question of how green is Maersk’s bio-methanol fuel? Now Maersk has followed up with more information on the ships themselves, which are a new design that uses 20% less fuel per shipping container. These are not silly 2050 pledges either—the first delivery is in 2024.
Most methanol made today is “brown” and made from fossil fuels, and burning it would release fossil carbon dioxide (CO2). As we wrote previously, Maersk is using bio-methanol made from plant waste, or e-methanol made from hydrogen and captured CO2. The company will need 450,000 tons per year to run all 12 ships, but the Methanol Institute says there are many projects on the boards and under construction, and predicts there will be a million tons per year available by 2025. If there isn’t enough when the ships arrive, they are dual-fuel and will run on Very Low Sulfur Fuel Oil (VLSFO) until there is enough.
Green methanol will cost a lot more than fuel oil. Soren Skou of Maersk told CNBC Europe it might be three times as expensive, but “the inflationary impact will be very modest when it comes out to the consumer.” Divided over 8,000 pairs of sneakers in a container, “it’s 10 cents per pair of sneakers. So that’s why I think … for the consumer, it will be manageable.”
The higher cost of fuel is what drove the redesign of the ships. According to the Maersk press release: “This design allows a 20% improved energy efficiency per transported container, when comparing to the industry average for vessels in this size. Additionally, the entire series is expected to save around one million tons of annual CO2 emissions, offering our customers carbon-neutral transportation at scale on ocean trades.” The ship carries 16,000 20-foot equivalent (TEU) containers, though most containers today are 40 feet long.
It certainly does look different; some would say ugly.
Many old salts are not impressed, thinking it looks more like a livestock carrier than a container ship. On the website The Loadstar, the post is titled “Thank God I won’t be on board’ – Maersk methanol ship design under fire.” Ex-ship’s captain Arjun Vikram-Singh is quoted extensively:
Another seaman complained about how far it was from the bridge to the engine room: “When the alarms go off, they’ve probably got the best part of a quarter-mile to run.” The comments on the post are pretty negative, too, although they note that these designs are not uncommon.
But a 20% saving in fuel is significant, and it will be easier and faster to unload the ship. Perhaps the best thing about it is that a contract has been signed, it’s real, and it’s really fast with 2024 delivery. That’s enough to get bio-methanol and e-methanol brewers cracking. It may be an ugly ship, but it is a beautiful story.
