Maersk has expounded on its apparent u-turn on LNG, which gave the industry pause after criticism of the fuel from company executives, reports loadstar.
Despite telling The Loadstar in 2023 that LNG was “not a fuel of the future for our fleet” and it would “invest in technologies and innovation that can develop new green alternatives to fossil fuel”, Maersk surprised the industry again by appearing to u-turn on this claim, ordering and chartering-in LNG-fuelled vessels.
Carbon neutral version
A carbon-neutral version of LNG, manufactured using methane emitted by anaerobic digestion of organic matter, bio-methane (or bio-LNG in its cryogenic form) is ‘biogenic’, meaning some amount would be emitted to the atmosphere as methane, regardless of human activity.
Identifying biogenic sources of methane and burning this as fuel has some enticing benefits, chief among them, transforming an existing emission of methane and transforming it, via combustion, into CO2, a less-potent greenhouse gas.
EU study
A 2016 EU study implies that some bio-methane could be made available in Europe. Considering four scenarios for biogas adoption, production reached 40,000 ktoe in the most aggressive scenario, providing almost, but not quite, enough for ship bunkering needs throughout Europe.
Biogas supply is necessarily limited, similarly to the biogenic feedstock of green methanol, to what can be found and harnessed. Nations are already scaling biogas plant capability to reclaim as much useful feedstock from sewage and agricultural waste.
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Source: Loadstar
