When X-Press Feeder’s brand new methanol dual-fuel container ship Eco Maestro departs Shanghai on its maiden voyage to Europe during the first quarter of next year, the company is planning to have it run on bio-methanol all the way.
However, the Singapore-headquartered feeder container operator admits that undertaking such a momentous voyage using one of the new green fuels that the shipping industry is betting its decarbonised future on does not come without significant challenges so early on in the game.
Francis Goh, X-Press Feeders’ chief operating officer, said on Tuesday that while the company is committed to using green methanol, the availability and distribution of methanol at ports on a global scale still poses a challenge.
“We aim to power Eco Maestro with green methanol for the entire journey from Shanghai to Rotterdam but certain ports en route have no infrastructure at present to supply methanol to ships, so we are engaging them to make it possible,” Goh said.
“We see this maiden voyage as a way to promote sustainable shipping globally and highlight to the global community how the shipping industry is working to play its part in helping to reduce CO2 emissions,” Goh said.
“By embarking on this voyage, we are also highlighting to all industry stakeholders — not just shipping companies but also regulators, port operators, fuel suppliers, logistics companies, freight-forwarders and beneficial cargo owners — that we all need to work together and play our part to make sustainable shipping a reality.
“Only by working together — step by step — can the industry put in place the necessary infrastructure at ports to support sustainable shipping. And only by having the end customer, namely the beneficial cargo owners, on board, can we make sustainable shipping financially viable.”
The 1,200-teu Eco Maestro, which is having the final finishing touches done at Chinese shipbuilder New Dayang Shipbuilding, is the first of 14 methanol dual-fuel container ships that X-Press Feeders is building in China.
Rotterdam supply
The company will base the ship, and others of the type, in Rotterdam for use on feeder services to Northern Europe and the Baltic.
“A key challenge with using green methanol, or any sustainable fuel for that matter, is it is in relatively small supply. Production of green methanol and other sustainable fuels needs to scale up enormously to meet the needs of the global maritime industry,” Goh said.
“But as a feeder operator, where our ships tend to operate on short sea routes within a relatively small geography, the quantities of bio-methanol available are sufficient for our dual-fuel vessels to run ‘closed loop’ services, where about 95% of the entire round voyage can be powered by methanol, with a resupply of fuel at the bunkering port after every voyage.”
To facilitate this, the company has already signed a firm contract with Dutch fuel supplier OCI Global for the supply of certified green methanol at the Port of Rotterdam starting in 2024.
X-Press Feeders said in July that the advance procurement of green methanol would allow it to offer the main line operators and interested European beneficial cargo owners the ability to deliver an intra-European green corridor by mid-2024, while the addition of the new dual-fuel ships would support the decarbonisation of 35% to 40% of its European fleet.
