ChatGPT & DALL-E generated panoramic image of a large container ship at sea, featuring a unique paint job with the bow painted in vibrant green and the rest of the ship in traditional steel-gray.

Maersk Dual Fuel Ships Won’t Decarbonize Methanol

Wood alcohol manufacturing is a big climate problem and Maersk’s additional demand isn’t fixing that

Major shipping firm A.P. Moller — Maersk continues to invest in green methanol and dual-fuel ships to burn it in. The firm made the choice for green methanol as its decarbonization strategy and is executing. While I think that green methanol is merely the best of the also-ran alternatives for the space, with batteries and biofuels being the much more reasonable and stronger contenders, I respect their choice.

But there are nuances in their approach worth considering. The news which triggered this was that Maersk did execute on something that had been in the works. Reports indicate that the firm has bought half of an Egyptian wind farm intended to fuel green methanol manufacturing next to the Suez Canal.

I first published on the Egyptian plans in early 2022, when I was engaged to assess European hydrogen initiatives in northern Africa. Egypt is providing significant fiscal tax breaks for green hydrogen, ammonia and methanol initiatives, and space in the Ain Sokhna economic zone beside the canal.

Not long ago, Maersk’s first dual-fuel ship slid into the water in South Korea for its long journey to Denmark. While Maersk…