The container ship from the Danish shipping company Maersk is the first in the world that can run on green methanol. But there are still a few hurdles to overcome before the industry is truly climate-friendly.
The “Laura Mærsk” is not a particularly large, conspicuous container ship at 172 meters long. But it is the first in the world that can sail across the seas in a climate-friendly manner. The fuel on board is not heavy oil, but green methanol.
The christening of this new type of ship was correspondingly grand in the port of Copenhagen: with musical contributions and euphoric speeches about the green change in shipping. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived as godmother: “This event is a big deal – not just for Europe, but for the whole world.”
“Laura Mærsk” as a pioneer
Container ships currently run on fossil fuels and international shipping is responsible for three percent of global greenhouse emissions. The Danish shipping company Maersk is proud of its pioneering work.
The entire fleet is to be converted step by step, says spokesman Morten Bo Christiansen, Head of Energy Transition: “It is a symbolic act and shows that it can be done. We managed to procure the fuel and build the ship.”
Size challenges and great potential
The methanol of the “Laura Mærsk” is – simply put – produced like this: Biogas is created from organic waste from landfills, which is then refined into methanol. The technology is still in its early stages. Just a few years ago it was not even clear that a ship engine could run on methanol. Now the demand is great: the shipping company Maersk alone has ordered 24 more ships of this type.
However, the increased demand is not yet matched by the current methanol production capacity. The new container ship therefore runs with a so-called dual-fuel engine and can also switch to marine diesel.
That’s why Ib Chorkendorff, an expert in renewable energies from the Copenhagen University of Technology, is only cautiously optimistic. He wonders to what extent the ship will run on methanol. “Very large investments are necessary. Many wind turbines have to be built and we need a lot of solar cells so that we have enough electricity to produce the fuel. And the factories for production also have to be built.”
Maersk: “Methanol operations secured for the coming years”
According to the Danish shipping company Maersk, methanol operation for the new container ship is secured for the coming years. But Maersk also points out that it now needs to invest heavily in change. In the future, the container ship “Laura Mærsk” will transport goods in the Baltic Sea region.
Morten Bo Christiansen from Maersk announced that customers will incur more costs in the future as a result of the fleet conversion. “The green fuels are much more expensive than fossil fuels. That is a challenge and can actually only be achieved through tax relief.”
Both the shipping company and the renewable energy expert and EU Commission President von der Leyen agreed: Despite all the problems along the way, the industry must go through change. Because 90 percent of global trade in goods is carried out by ship. The environmental protection organization NABU recently calculated that shipping – if it were a state – would be in sixth place among all CO2 emitters, even ahead of Germany.