Pacific Basin Chooses Methanol as Preferred Fuel
Hong-Kong-headquartered dry bulk shipowner Pacific Basin Shipping said it sees methanol as its best option as it pursues commercially viable zero-emissions vessels.
In May 2022, the company entered into a memorandum of understanding with Nihon Shipyard Co., Ltd and Mitsui & Co., Ltd to cooperate on the development of zero-emission vessels and potential investment in related green fuel bunkering infrastructure.
"We have collectively now completed our feasibility assessment of the various potential green fuels (covering fuel characteristics, availability and scalability, technical pros and cons, lifetime operating and capital costs, etc.), and have concluded that green methanol is currently the best fuel around which to plan our first generation of zero-emission vessels," Pacific Basin said.
Pacific Basin added that it believes biofuels will also feature in the industry’s fuel mix, and that ammonia will become an important marine fuel in some sectors once technical and safety challenges are adequately addressed.
Martin Fruergaard, CEO of Pacific Basin, said, "Drawing on the collective expertise of our partners, we are confident that methanol is currently the most suitable future fuel for Handysize and Supramax bulk carriers, and we believe the infrastructure to produce and distribute green methanol is coming.
"We are now embarking on the next stage of our decarbonization project, which is to develop a highly efficient ship design around which we plan to contract our first generation of dual-fuel zero-emission newbuildings, again in collaboration with our Japanese partners.
"We want to be at the forefront of our segment’s transition to zero-emission vessels which should enable us to meet our target of zero emissions by 2050. Through our example, we hope to help accelerate the transition and make zero-emission vessels the default choice in the dry bulk sector by 2030."
