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https://freedium.cfd/https://medium.com/the-future-is-electric/maersk-dual-fuel-ships-wont-decarbonize-methanol-caa561437816>
"Major shipping firm A.P. Moller — Maersk continues to invest in green methanol
and dual-fuel ships to burn it in. The firm made the choice for green methanol
as its decarbonization strategy and is executing. While I think that green
methanol is merely the best of the also-ran alternatives for the space, with
batteries and biofuels being the much more reasonable and stronger contenders,
I respect their choice.
But there are nuances in their approach worth considering. The news which
triggered this was that Maersk did execute on something that had been in the
works. Reports indicate that the firm has bought half of an Egyptian wind farm
intended to fuel green methanol manufacturing next to the Suez Canal.
I first published on the Egyptian plans in early 2022, when I was engaged to
assess European hydrogen initiatives in northern Africa. Egypt is providing
significant fiscal tax breaks for green hydrogen, ammonia and methanol
initiatives, and space in the Ain Sokhna economic zone beside the canal.
Not long ago, Maersk's first dual-fuel ship slid into the water in South Korea
for its long journey to Denmark. While Maersk promoted its use of green
methanol, sourced from biomethane at a U.S. landfill, the presumed
transportation of this fuel over 10,000 km to Ulsan raises questions about its
environmental impact. Furthermore, the Maersk ship needed to refuel multiple
times during its journey, in Singapore and Egypt, leading to uncertainties
about the type of fuel being used. There were doubts regarding whether the
Singaporean tanker, which may have transported the green methanol, is using
unabated methanol with higher CO2e emissions than diesel, or if it's using
diesel itself.
In fact, it's been revealed that Maerk's dual-fuel ships, when they run on
methanol at all, will be very unlikely to be burning green methanol directly,
at least not for a long time. Due to the very obvious logistical challenges of
getting relatively tiny amounts of green methanol to a large number of ports
that don't have it, Maersk instead is effectively doing what Microsoft does
when it buys wind power hundreds of kilometers away from a data center. It's
using whatever methanol is available locally, and paying for the creation of
green methanol which will be used by some other end user somewhere else."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
