Pacific Basin chooses methanol for newbuilds

The companies have collectively now completed a feasibility assessment of the various potential green fuels and concluded that green methanol is currently the best fuel for their first generation of zero-emission vessels.

They believe that biofuels will also feature in the industry’s fuel mix and that ammonia will become an important marine fuel in some sectors once technical and safety challenges are adequately addressed.

Martin Fruergaard, CEO of Pacific Basin, said: ‘‘Drawing on the collective expertise of our partners, we are confident that methanol is currently the most suitable future fuel for Handysize and Supramax bulk carriers, and we believe the infrastructure to produce and distribute green methanol is coming. We are now embarking on the next stage of our decarbonisation project, which is to develop a highly efficient ship design around which we plan to contract our first generation of dual-fuel zero-emission newbuildings, again in collaboration with our Japanese partners. We want to be at the forefront of our segment’s transition to zero-emission vessels which should enable us to meet our target of zero emissions by 2050. Through our example, we hope to help accelerate the transition and make zero-emission vessels the default choice in the dry bulk sector by 2030.’’