Maersk chooses green methanol partner

REintegrate and European Energy will establish a new Danish facility to produce the approximately 10,000 tonnes of carbon neutral e-methanol that the vessel will use annually.

“Sourcing the fuels of the future is a significant challenge, and we need to be able to scale production in time,” said Henriette Hallberg Thygesen, chief executive of fleet & strategic brands, A.P. Moller – Maersk.

“This agreement with European Energy/REintegrate brings us on track to deliver on our ambition to have the world’s first container vessel operated on carbon neutral methanol on the water by 2023,” she added.

The methanol facility will use renewable energy and biogenic CO2, provided by a solar farm in Kassø in southern Denmark, to produce the e-methanol. Production is expected to start in 2023 but it is not yet decided where in Denmark the power-to-methanol facility will be located.

Maersk announced the dual fuel vessel, an industry first, in February 2021 and in June this year confirmed that Hyudai Mipo Dockyards will be building the 2,100teu feeder. It will be 172 metres long and is expected to join the Maersk fleet in mid-2023, servicing the Baltic shipping route between northern Europe and the Bay of Bothnia.