Port of Gothenburg will be home to Europe’s first green e-fuels hub

Ferry operators Stena Line and DFDS and energy companies Ørsted and Liquid Wind have partnered up with the Swedish Port of Gothenburg to establish an electromethanol (e-fuels) hub.

As the largest port in Scandinavia, Gothenburg is said to be the ideal choice for the first delivery and bunkering point for green e-fuels.

With the intent to launch in 2025, this pioneering venture is a tangible step towards a carbon-neutral shipping industry, according to project partners.

Stena Line and DFDS are partnering with FlagshipONE which is jointly owned by Ørsted and Liquid Wind, a developer of eMethanol projects in Europe.

FlagshipONE, which is in late-stage development and approaching a final investment decision, will be the largest e-fuels facility in the world, producing 50,000 tonnes of eMethanol annually.

This collaboration is supported by the Port of Gothenburg, the first shipping port to actively pursue a green fuels policy ensuring carbon neutral operations by 2030.

The five companies will now work together to launch the first renewable, ‘Made in Sweden’ marine fuel, to encourage more companies to choose carbon neutral e-fuels.

The commitment to e-fuels made by the shipping companies is proof of their ambition to catalyse the transition to carbon neutral shipping, the parties said.

“Stena Line has the ambition to achieve a climate neutral operation. This partnership is yet another proof point of our dedication to reduce our carbon footprint. We cannot achieve this on our own – a strategic collaboration across the value chain will be a win-win for all stakeholders in this exciting project,” Niclas Mårtensson, CEO of Stena Line, commented.

“With eMethanol from this partnership, DFDS is adding a new e-fuel possibility to deliver on our promise to operate a green vessel latest by 2025,” Torben Carlsen, CEO of DFDS, said.

“Ørsted is excited about the opportunity to support the Port of Gothenburg, DFDS and Stena Line in their ambition to decarbonise their marine operations by using green e-fuel to be produced at FlagshipONE in Sweden,” Olivia Breese, Senior Vice President, Ørsted P2X, noted.

“The Port of Gothenburg has set out to reduce CO2-emissions by 70% within the port area by 2030. This is an extremely important goal for us, but something we cannot achieve on our own. Therefore, we are delighted to have a supplier like Liquid Wind and committed ship owners like Stena Line and DFDS taking these ambitious steps that will make a huge difference towards achieving that goal,” Elvir Dzanic, CEO of the Port of Gothenburg, pointed out.

Green e-fuels

Green e-fuels are on track to replace fossil fuels for maritime propulsion for true decarbonisation in the hard-to-abate shipping sector.

According to the Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, eMethanol offers a number of advantages as marine fuel. It has more manageable handling requirements than other e-fuels and eMethanol engines are already commercially available.

Despite clean, renewable sources of energy being a critically important component of global shipping’s decarbonisation efforts, the center estimates that we’ll need additional support from other levers to fully realise the maritime industry’s zero-carbon ambitions.

Green electrofuel, eMethanol, is made from 100% biogenic sources combined with 100% renewable wind energy. It doesn’t add CO2 to the atmosphere. And it’s designed to help the world significantly reduce its carbon footprint.