ABS releases methanol guidelines

The classification society says its ‘ABS Methanol Bunkering: Technical and Operational Advisory’ provides the shipping industry with insight into the challenges of bunkering the fuel and ways to address them.

“As the class provider for the world’s largest methanol-fuelled vessel and with numerous methanol-based projects underway, ABS has unrivalled insight into the adoption of methanol as a marine fuel,” said John McDonald, ABS president and chief operating officer.

“Numbers of methanol fuelled vessels are growing rapidly and ABS is focused on supporting its safe adoption by the industry, which is why we are proud to offer this publication to support owners, operators and yards with bunkering challenges related to operations, design and training.”

A key component of the methanol value chain and the overall scalability of the fuel will be the ability to bunker methanol, either by truck-to-ship, ship-to-ship or land storage tank/terminal-to-ship.

The publication provides guidance regarding the technical and operational challenges of the supplier to the receiving vessel including design issues, regulatory compliance, safe practices, areas of operational processes to consider, training and safety aspects.