Europe’s first green methanol feeder services

The industry milestone coincided with the naming and christening ceremony in Rotterdam of X-Press Feeders’ first dual-fuel methanol-powered vessel.

The Eco-Maestro is the first of 14 dual-fuel vessels on order by X-Press Feeders, for routes mostly across Europe. The second dual-fuel vessel is scheduled to join the new network by Q3 2024.

“Companies now have a regular scheduled network that can ship goods in a way that has less impact on the environment, helping them better achieve their sustainability goals,” says X-Press Feeders chief operating officer, Francis Goh.

“We chose northern Europe for the first routes in the network because we found that customers in this part of Europe were most receptive to our plans for sustainable shipping,” he continued.

X-Press Feeders first methanol-powered feeder network offers the following services:

• Green Finland X-PRESS (GFX): Rotterdam > Antwerp Bruges > Helsinki > Tallinn > HaminaKotka > Rotterdam
• Green Baltic X-PRESS (GBX): Rotterdam > Antwerp Bruges > Klaipeda > Riga > Rotterdam

X-Press Feeders says it has chosen the Port or Rotterdam as its base for the new service as it is the largest port in Europe and is already fully equipped to handle green methanol refuelling.

The new vessels will run on green methanol that is independently certified in Europe under the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification.