MSC Eyes Hydrogen as Containership Fuel

Container shipping giant Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) said it is working to advance the exploration viability of hydrogen and fuels derived from it as potentially viable fuel sources for its vessels.

The initiative is part of the Swiss-Italian shipping line’s wider approach to decarbonization which has already seen the company pioneer the use of biofuels as a blended marine fuel, and on Tuesday MSC said it joined the Hydrogen Council, an industry body, to help drive R&D related to hydrogen derived fuels and solutions.

“MSC is actively engaging with a wide range of stakeholders to accelerate the development of clean hydrogen fuels for shipping,” said Bud Darr, Executive Vice President, Maritime Policy & Government Affairs, MSC Group.

“The future of shipping and decarbonization will rely on strong partnerships from both the perspective of technology collaboration and procurement,” Darr continued. “There must be a massive injection of energy and capital into R&D efforts to bring alternative fuels and alternative propulsion technologies to the marketplace to decarbonize all industries in the longer term.”

The Hydrogen Council is a global CEO-led initiative that brings together companies with a united vision and long-term ambition for hydrogen to foster the clean energy transition.

Increasingly, shipping companies are turning to cleaner-burning fuels and other emissions reducing technologies to meet the UN International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) target to halve the industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 2008 levels by 2050. MSC is actively exploring and trialing a range of alternative fuels and technologies, and it is already actively bunkering biofuels at scale.