Niclas Martensson, Stena Line Group’s COO received the Kiel Port Prize 2015 award for being the world’s first shipping company to run a methanol-powered ferry. He received the award during the port business community’s 33rd annual meet called the “Sprottenback” event.
PORT of KIEL managing director Dirk Claus is quoted to have said: “By retrofitting the Stena Germanica, which serves the Kiel – Gothenburg route, Stena Line is making a positive impact on the environment and is treading new and exemplary paths within the ferry sector”.
Speaking about Methanol and its use, Mr Claus said: “Were this fuel to be obtained increasingly in future from biomasses rather than from natural gas, then shipping would already be very close to meeting the EU’s targeted ‘zero emission’ level,” .
Earlier this year, the Stena Germanica was retrofitted with methanol conversion engines at the Remontowa Shipyard at a cost of about €22 million ($136.5 million) by Stena Teknik in co-operation with the Wärtsilä concern. Cost subsidies for conversion were granted by EU’s “Motorways of the seas programme”.
Studies reveal methanol to reduce sulphur emission by as much as 99% , a 60% reduction in nitrogen emission and almost 95% reduction in soot particles and a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) when compared with diesel fuel engine emissions.
Stena Germanica is a RoPax class ferry that operates on the Kiel, Germany, to Gothenburg, Sweden route. She has a 51,837 GT capacity and is 240 m in length with a loading capacity of 4,000 lane metres.
Source: Port of Kiel
