Maersk’s 1st methanol-powered feeder gears up for sea trials as keel is laid for 1st larger ship from the series

The world’s first feeder vessel powered by green methanol is nearing construction completion and is getting ready to embark on its sea trials later this month.

The 172-meter-long feeder was launched on April 4 at South Korea’s Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and it is being built for Denmark-based industry major Maersk as part of a 19-strong methanol-powered containership fleet.

“The sea trials will be the opportunity for us to get the first-hand experience on running on methanol,” Leonardo Sonzio, Vice President and Head of Fleet Management and Technology at A.P. Moller-Maersk, said.

The naming and delivery of the vessel are scheduled for September in Copenhagen, with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, picked as the godmother of the vessel.

The vessel’s arrival in Copenhagen by mid-September will be celebrated with an important ceremony, providing an opportunity to showcase the cutting-edge technology and visit the vessel.

Maersk has secured green methanol for the ship’s first trip in cooperation with the Dutch producer and distributor of hydrogen-based products OCI Global. Namely, OCI will provide ISCC-certified green biomethanol to power the maiden voyage of the newbuild.

“The green methanol market is still in its infancy and frankly we had not expected to be able to secure a maiden voyage on green methanol for this vessel. So, we are very proud to have achieved this significant milestone,” said Morten Bo Christiansen, Head of Energy Transition, A.P. Moller – Maersk.

The 21,500 km trip from Ulsan, South Korea to Copenhagen, Denmark will provide real operational experience for Maersk seafarers handling the new engines and using methanol as fuel, as the company prepares to receive a fleet of new, large ocean-going methanol-enabled ships from 2024.

Namely, the feeder will be followed by 18 large ocean-going vessels of 16,000-17,200 TEU capacity which are scheduled for delivery in 2024 and 2025.

Meanwhile, the construction of the larger container carriers is progressing as planned, with the first vessel expected to be delivered early next year.

“On the larger vessel program, another major milestone was hit a few weeks back. In fact, the keel laying ceremony of the first hull was completed. The construction is going as planned and you can really feel that we are getting there,” Sonzio said while speaking in a recent edition of Maersk Decarbonisation Series.

While constructing the vessels is a crucial step, the primary challenge lies in securing a reliable supply of green methanol. Emma Mazhari, Head of Energy Markets at the company, also acknowledged the infancy of the green methanol market, highlighting the complexity and pioneering work involved in establishing fully operational sites for producing green methanol at scale.

Maersk has formed diverse partnerships with various green fuel producers to address the green methanol supply challenge. The company has seen promising projects globally, including European Energy’s construction of a facility in Denmark, which is slated to start delivering e-methanol for the feeder in the first half of 2024.

Despite facing more permit requirements than anticipated by the authorities, 29 in total, the project demonstrates that the momentum is building within the industry.

“That goes to show the complexity and also the true pioneering work that we’re really seeing in the space right now,” Mazhari said, adding that the company has come a lot further than initially expected at this stage.

Maersk said that its green methanol will be certified by third parties, meeting minimum thresholds on a life-cycle basis aligned with EU legislation.

For biofuels, that threshold is a 65% reduction compared to fossil fuel and for the e-fuels, the threshold is a 70% reduction.

The company plans to work on ensuring that the production pathways are based on waste, renewable electricity, and certified to achieve substantial greenhouse gas reduction compared to fossil fuels.

Therefore, the bio-methanol that will be used for the maiden voyage of Maersk’s feeder vessel will be produced from biogas obtained from landfills in the United States. This bio-methanol will fulfill the company’s sustainability criteria, achieving a 65% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions throughout its lifecycle.

While methanol as a fuel is not new to the wider shipping industry, its use in container ships is groundbreaking, Sonzio highlights.

“A number of methanol tankers are operating on methanol today and there is already knowledge and experience in the market on the operation of the main engine. In fact, during the specification and building phases of the vessel, we tapped into that knowledge and reached out to tanker operators to hear the most crucial aspects from their experience. That said, green methanol as a fuel is new to the container ship sector, and the new auxiliary engines which we will have on these vessels are a new type. They’ve undergone a lot of R&D and testing, but certainly, the operational experience is needed,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the company’s crews are undergoing tailored training programs to gain practical experience and knowledge to be able to troubleshoot potential operational challenges. The crews are about to undergo simulator training and methanol courses.

Engineers on board Maersk’s methanol-powered ships will be the ones responsible for the bunkering operations as well as the operation, maintenance, and repair of engines as well as their fuel systems.

“In essence, you can say that the feeder vessel is there to gain experience and that the real decarbonization impact will come from the large container carriers,” Sonzio said.

Looking ahead, Maersk aims to expand its portfolio of green methanol projects and explore different production pathways, including biomethane which leverages existing infrastructure and captures methane emissions from waste sources.

“Before this fuel comes to market from the European Energy facility, we expect that the feeder will be sailing on biomethanol produced from biogas and potentially this type of green methanol could also be an opportunity for some of the demand coming from the larger vessels that will hit the water in 2024 and 2025,” Mazhari explained.

A lot of companies from the container shipping sector are following Maersk’s lead in pursuing green methanol to decarbonize their operations and at the moment approximately 18% of the current order book in the container shipping sector consists of methanol dual-fuel ships, creating much more demand for the fuel.

“The industry is sending a very strong demand signal to the market and moving us beyond this ‘chicken and egg debate’ that we’ve been talking about for quite a few years now. It’s no longer a question about whether there will be a market for green methanol for shipping, it is rather about how quickly can it scale,” Mazhari added.

This also means that the industry will need very large quantities of methanol in the market that doesn’t really exist today. There is a very strong supply response on the market, however, the company would like to see energy majors come to the table and develop more ambitious green fuel projects to deliver scale within this decade.

“This is really not a chicken and egg situation anymore as there are hundreds of vessels on order. It’s a fuel supply challenge – scaling production and getting costs down – because there is a limit to how much we as an industry can afford to pay. It’s definitely not an easy fuel pathway and it’s not easy to produce sustainable green methanol,” Bo Christiansen added.

In conclusion, there is some support being received from regulatory measures in addressing environmental concerns in the shipping industry. The inclusion of shipping in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), with a carbon tax imposed, plays a significant role in funding a substantial portion of the green premium for alternative fuels.

Similarly, the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States provides extensive tax subsidies for green fuel products, effectively reducing production costs.

Although the ideal scenario would involve global initiatives, such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) increasing ambitions and implementing a global carbon tax on shipping, it is encouraging to witness regional actions being taken to address these issues, Christiansen concluded.