The Green Maritime Methanol consortium has selected nine vessels for research on the application of renewable methanol as a marine fuel. New designs, newbuilds and existing ships of Boskalis, Van Oord, the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) and Wagenborg Shipping have been selected.
Vessel sizes vary in length from between 40 to 160 metres, with tonnage ranging from 300 to 23,000 deadweight tonnage and in installed power from 1 to 12 megawatts. First, the cost for implementation and use of methanol fuel systems will be researched. The results of which will be compared with low sulphur marine diesel fuel systems. The project is supported by TKI Maritiem and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and runs until December 2020.
Different Operational Profiles
Each of the ships has its own specific operational profile, providing a specific insight into the feasibility of methanol for a certain ship type, its sailing route and cruising speed. For each scenario the most attractive technical, operational and economical configurations will be determined. Not only cargo vessels are being evaluated in this phase, as attention will also be paid to ferries, dredgers and support vessels operating in coastal waters.
Developing Methanol as a Shipping Fuel
The parties envision sharing knowledge within the consortium with opportunities to further develop methanol as a transport fuel for the maritime sector.
In addition to the ship owners whose ships have been selected, the Green Maritime Methanol consortium covers a wide range of participants. Among others, these include ship building companies such as Damen Shipyards, Feadship and Royal IHC, engine suppliers such as Wärtsilä and Pon Power, classification societies Bureau Veritas and Lloyd's Register, and knowledge institues MARIN, Maritime Knowledge Centre (MKC), TU Delft and TNO.
