Page 45: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2022)

FEATURE METHANOL SHIPS out in getting green fuels for speci? c routes). in thousands of different products and hundreds of different

Finally, it comes down to technology, and speci? cally en- processes for different performance compounds, resin, glues, gine availability. “Pre-2008 we had a phase where main en- fabrics, and so forth.” gines were not available because we had so many people Ultimately, as always, it comes down to both market and ordering ships. We are entering into a phase again where regulatory drivers, and the Methanol Institute is keen to throw availability of the right engines and the right technology is in it’s expertise on the latter. “We need to have clearer policy. (becoming) a bottleneck. So you need to make sure what is We can’t keep moving forward to ? nd the perfect solution be- available in order to bring the whole vessel together.” cause there is no perfect policy package. So we’re looking to have more consistency across these regulatory packages

METHANOL AVAILABILITY that are being proposed, and maybe it would be useful to just

For its part, the Methanol Institute is 35-years-old, the maybe pick out some of the more simple initiatives – such as global trade association for the methanol industry originally a carbon levy – just to get it out there and allow the market founded in Washington, DC. According to Chris Chatterton, to take that in, process it and using market-based measures,

COO, Methanol Institute, the organization has evolved glob- move forward.” ally, and today its headquarters are in Singapore, with of? ces Chatterton tips his cap to Baack and MPCC for taking the in Beijing, Brussels, New Delhi and Washington DC. “We initiative to actually order ships. “I mean to build ships takes have 76 members, and I think it’s relevant to say that over time to make that decision, it’s taking a bit of risk,” he said. the past 12-18 months, we’ve almost doubled our member- “And then the infrastructure isn’t all in place, it’s still a bit of ship numbers, and mainly on the back of the marine uptake for “the chicken and the egg. So now I think we’ve crossed that methanol as a fuel,” said Chatterton. bridge and now we’re looking at how to prepare the infra-

While maritime is embarked on its own decarbonization structure so that these ships, when they’re commissioned in trek, it’s sometimes easy to forget that most over industries, another 18 months, have the necessary infrastructure to sup- too, are on the same path, and competition for alternative fuels port (operations).” could be ? erce as capability builds out, particularly for ‘green’ “I think the regulation is key here, but I think the fuel will versions of the fuel. Here the Methanol Institute’s Chatterton follow the ships (and the regulation),” said Baack. “There lends perspective. have been some front runners like Maersk on methanol, a very “There’s been a buildup the past three years when we start- positive development because in the end, (it helps to create a ed tracking carbon neutral methanol,” said Chatterton. “We’re greater) demand for methanol.” approaching maybe 4 million tons – not all built yet, not pro- At the start, according to Baack, it’s not necessarily critical ducing yet— but the trend is clearly there and it’s a bit based that it all be ‘green’ or some other colorful form of metha- on maritime push for decarbonization.” But he points out nol, as regardless of its source and emission pro? le, it can that methanol is used as a petrochemical building block, and be blended, which he sees as “smart because it allows you to “there is a lot of pull from the chemical sector where it’s used transition over time.”

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MR #11 (34-49).indd 45 11/4/2022 11:31:54 AM