Green Maritime Methanol; operation aspects and the fuel supply chain

Increasing pressure on shipping to contribute to reduce GHG emissions is changing the landscape for marine fuels. In the quest for sustainable alternative fuels, methanol is one of the fuels that has a special interest in the Green Maritime Methanol project. This report focuses on the operational aspects of using methanol, in terms of suitability to the different shipping market segments, the bunker operations and the upstream and downstream supply chain aspects of methanol as a marine fuel. The suitability of methanol for different shipping markets depends among others on the fuel consumption patterns; what distances do these vessels sail between two subsequent ports? But also the tank capacity and the typical sailing pattern matters; point-to-point, fixed schedules or tramp sailing. With ship arrival data from the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, an analysis of the suitability was made, resulting in the following ‘heatmap’ on the applicability of methanol.