Europe: GTT ‘Switching to methanol will mean more emissions and more cost'

The company is looking a ‘virtual liquefaction’ of biomethane through the pan-European energy grid, with biomethane potentially liquefied in Spain at cheaper energy prices

Speaking at the Motorship Propulsion and Future Fuels Conference in Hamburg this week, Can Murtezaoğlu, Business Development Manager EMEAI of GTT, set out the gas containment company’s belief that LNG, rather than an early switch to fossil methanol, was the best way to transition to carbon-neutral fuels, Bunker Sport website reports.

‘Switching to methanol will mean more emissions and more cost,’ said Murtezaoğlu, citing figures showing that a large containership would emit 225,000 more tonnes of CO2e across its life if fuelled with methanol, and in order to respect the Fuel EU Maritime Trajectory, the owner would pay around US$400 million more for fuel and other related costs.

Also speaking at the Hamburg conference, Captain Michael Behmerburg, Global Fuel Purchasing, Director Green Fuels, Hapag-Lloyd AG, said that the shipping company is investing significantly in LNG-fuelled feeder vessels, with new ships set to be on the water by 2025 generating a demand for more than 300,000 tonnes of LNG a year. He added that the company hopes this will be fulfilled in large part by bio-methane – and it is looking a ‘virtual liquefaction’ of biomethane through the pan-European energy grid, with biomethane potentially liquefied in Spain at cheaper energy prices.

Meanwhile, Tom Strang, SVP Maritime Affairs, Carnival Corporation, said that 20% of Carnival’s ships by passenger capacity run on LNG and the company is now considering bio-methane among several alternatives to decarbonise its fleet. Those options including retrofitting LNG vessels for methanol fuel, a forthcoming pilot project using methane oxidation catalysts and plasma abatement technologies.