France’s CMA CGM will launch the first liner offering using biomethane in May, chairman and chief executive Rodolphe Saade said.
The company expects to support the venture by investing in biomethane production facilities in its bid to develop carbon-neutral fuels for shipping, he said during an online meeting on Thursday.
Saade told a meeting co-hosted by the United Nations Global Compact Sustainable Ocean Business Action Platform and IDB Invest that CMA CGM would support the production of over 12,000 tons of biomethane annually.
That would provide enough fuel for a year for two 1,400-teu LNG-fuelled ships operating in the northern Europe trades between St Petersburg and Rotterdam.
The launch of the first low carbon maritime service based on methane would help CMA CGM “to decarbonise the transportation in a significant way”, Saade said.
He said the use of biomethane, coupled with CMA CGM’s dual-fuel gas-power technology, can reduce well-to-wake greenhouse gas emissions including CO2 by at least 67%.
At ship level, or on a tank-to-wake basis, it would amount to an 88% reduction in greenhouse gases, he said.
“It’s a major step forward towards carbon neutrality,” Saade said.
Investing in biomethane production
Guarantee-of-origin (GO) biomethane produced from organic waste from European farms would be compatible with the engines of CMA CGM's LNG vessels.
"It’s a new market for farmers and a great example of circular economy,” Saade said.
He acknowledged that the industry had a long way to go before meeting the commitment of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
“We need to act. Achieving this goal does not rely only on one solution, but a set of initiatives and new technologies that will complement each other," he said.
"We are already looking at different energies — hydrogen, ammonia — which are long-term solutions,” he said.
“To accelerate this research development, we need to work together."
“We need to set long-term objectives to be carbon neutral by 2050. But at the same time we must act now by implementing all solutions currently available on an industrial scale.”
By 2022, CMA CGM will operate a fleet of 32 LNG-fuelled vessels.
