Hydrogen shipping | 'You won't be able to source enough green methanol for your dual-fuel engines'
Such vessels will end up just burning diesel instead, InterContinental boss warns market players considering following in the footsteps of Maersk, which has ordered 12 methanol-ready ships
Hydrogen: hype, hope and the hard truths around its role in the energy transition
Speaking on a panel at the Reuters Hydrogen 2023 event in Amsterdam on Wednesday, which included a representative from an independent research institute originally founded by Maersk and others, Alicia Eastman said that methanol has the potential to become a “big problem”.
“If everyone orders a methanol ship right now with a dual-fuel engine, we are going to go backwards because there’s not going to be enough methanol and everyone will just use diesel,” she told the Amsterdam audience, going on to question the environmental credentials of using a carbon-containing molecule — often marketed as “biogenic” if it has been captured from an organic source such as biomass — to cut emissions.
Unnecessary investment in methanol could be distracting from crucial investment in ammonia infrastructure before ammonia-powered ships actually hit the water, she added, noting that the Danish firm’s order of 12 methanol ships was a drop in the ocean compared to its 400-strong fleet.
“If we’re going to get 25% decarbonisation by 2030, methanol is not going to get them there,” she told the audience in Amsterdam. “Although I fully appreciate the shipping companies wanting to do something now, I think we have to be careful about how much we invest in that.”
InterContinental is one of the partners developing two green ammonia plants in Western Australia — the Australian Renewable Energy Hub and Western Green Energy Hub — as well as in Oman and Saudi Arabia, which leaves Eastman open to accusations that she is simply playing down one technology to bolster InterContinental’s business interests.
The Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping was founded by a donation from the Maersk family as well as six other partners — it is an independent organisation not legally affiliated with the shipping giant or any of its other namesakes.
If Maersk can’t source adequate supply, or can’t afford to, it will indeed end up burning diesel instead, he added.
But although green ammonia production is likely to significantly exceed the projected demand from the shipping industry — mostly as a result of worldwide demand for green ammonia ramping up — the maritime industry will also have to compete for supply.