Author: Contact ESG0

Strategic Renewal

Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation has signed contracts for six eight thousand TEU containerships that will be delivered beginning in 2028. Built by Nihon Shipyard, Imabari Shipbuilding and Shoei Kisen, the vessels are designed for immediate efficiency and future conversion to green methanol. The order replaces older five thousand five hundred TEU ships, ensuring the company maintains reliable capacity while lowering fleet carbon intensity.

Design Highlights

The new hulls incorporate high efficiency propellers, energy saving rudders and a rudder fin that reduces swirl. Main engines arrive methanol ready, requiring only modest adjustments when green methanol becomes widely available. This foresight avoids stranded assets and allows Yang Ming to match fuel strategy with market evolution. Computational fluid dynamics studies suggest the ships will consume at least ten percent less energy than the vessels they retire.

Service Network Benefits

With eight thousand TEU capacity, the ships sit in a versatile space between Panamax and mega carriers. That flexibility enables Yang Ming to redeploy tonnage quickly in response to shifting trade lanes without deep water constraints. The midsize format also eases terminal crane requirements

across developing regions. Customers gain schedule resilience and expanded options for sustainable transport as more routes can host methanol capable vessels.

Non-Obvious Insight

By ordering both purchased and chartered units under one program, Yang Ming leverages pooled learning for crew training, spare parts and digital performance monitoring. The shared platform reduces operational expenditure even before fuel savings are realised, demonstrating that standardisation itself is a decarbonisation enabler.

Conclusion

The contract signals growing confidence in methanol as a practical pathway toward cleaner shipping. Combining smart design, flexible capacity and coordinated partnerships, Yang Ming positions itself and its clients for smooth transition once green methanol supply reaches scale.

Source – Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation

Why This Matters

COSCO Shipping Libra, a seven year old twenty thousand TEU giant, has returned to service with an upgraded Everllence S90 engine now able to burn both conventional fuel and green methanol. The retrofit allows immediate greenhouse gas savings without waiting for a newbuild program. Because Libra is one of more than three hundred ships using this engine platform, the demonstration opens a realistic short term pathway toward a cleaner container fleet.

Methanol is liquid at ambient temperature, so it slots neatly into existing bunkering practice while cutting sulfur to zero and slashing carbon intensity. The recent ship to ship bunkering of two thousand one hundred tons in Shanghai confirms that supply chains can scale quickly when demand appears.

Engineering Highlights

PrimeServ engineers replaced the original fuel injection module with the LGIM package, upgraded control software, and installed additional tanks plus piping for methanol. Crucially, the crankshaft and cylinder block were retained, keeping steel already embedded in the vessel productive. That reuse is often overlooked yet it delivers an invisible climate benefit by avoiding the emissions that would accompany manufacturing new heavy castings.

A dedicated S90 test engine in Japan gave Everllence real world validation before yard work began, dramatically shrinking commissioning risk. According to yard reports, total off hire time was comparable with a routine dry dock despite the significant scope, proving that large scale conversions can be scheduled without disrupting trade lanes.

A Non-Obvious Insight

Because methanol burns at lower temperatures, engine wear patterns change. Early data suggest that longer periods between cylinder liner inspections may be possible, offering owners an operational saving that sits outside the traditional fuel cost equation.

Conclusion

With a proven blueprint, established bunkering practice, and measurable operational bonuses, methanol retrofits now present an attractive fast track for nations and carriers seeking immediate progress toward climate targets.

Source – Offshore Energy

Expanding the Toolkit

Classification society ClassNK has released Edition 2 of its Guidelines for Onboard CO2 Capture and Storage Systems, the first global rulebook to include membrane separation technology. The update builds on the 2023 edition, which covered amine absorption, and reflects growing industry interest in turning ships into mobile carbon capture units that complement fuel transitions such as methanol or ammonia.

Why Membranes Matter

Membrane systems filter exhaust gases through specialised polymer sheets that allow carbon dioxide to pass while blocking most other molecules. Compared with amine based scrubbers, membranes require less energy, occupy a smaller footprint, and do not rely on a steady supply of chemical solvent. These characteristics make them suitable for container feeders, bulk carriers, and even offshore support vessels where space and power are at a premium.

Unified Structure

The new edition reorganises requirements into generic foundations common to every capture method and specific chapters for each technology. Designers now have a single reference for safety, control logic, storage tank integrity, and crew training regardless of the chosen approach. This structure should accelerate approval timelines because naval architects can reuse compliance work from one project on another.

Non-Obvious Insight

A subtle benefit is that membrane systems can operate flexibly alongside variable engine loads typical in real world sailing. Their capture rate adjusts almost linearly with exhaust volume, avoiding the part load performance dips that challenge chemical absorbers. This dynamic responsiveness can improve overall voyage efficiency when weather or routing changes force throttle adjustments.

Path Forward

ClassNK offers free access to the guidelines, encouraging manufacturers and owners to experiment confidently. Early adopters may find value in retrofitting pilot scale units during routine dry docking to collect performance data before committing fleetwide.

Conclusion

By codifying membrane-based capture standards, ClassNK is lowering entry barriers for innovative solutions that keep maritime trade moving while steadily shrinking its emissions footprint.

Source – Marine Insight

Integrated pathway for cleaner bunkers

The European Union continues to accelerate maritime decarbonisation through the FLEXI GREEN FUELS initiative. Coordinated by Hochschule Bremerhaven and supported by Horizon funding, the project brings together universities scale up firms refineries and shipowners to create a single processing platform capable of turning low value residues into high value liquid fuel. Recent milestones confirm that the integrated pilot line has reached continuous operation, converting mixed waste streams into drop in hydrocarbons suitable for bunker tanks.

Multistream conversion technology

Engineers begin by applying organosolv pretreatment that separates cellulose hemicellulose and lignin. The sugar rich fractions move into three parallel biological routes: fungal fermentation, dark algae fermentation and insect larvae conversion. Each route produces lipids that are then hydro treated and isomerised into diesel range molecules. Meanwhile fast pyrolysis transforms lignin into aromatic components perfect for heavier marine blends. The modular design lets operators dial the product slate toward shipping or aviation simply by adjusting hydrotreatment severity.

Economic and environmental promise

Initial techno economic models show production costs could fall below current fossil marine gas oil prices once commercial scale is reached, while life cycle analysis projects emission savings of up to eighty percent. Because the process can accept municipal waste alongside agricultural residues it offers coastal cities a double benefit of reduced landfill volumes and cleaner waterfront air.

Insight into year-round resilience

A compelling yet less discussed advantage lies in process flexibility. Algae dark fermentation performs consistently even when cold winters reduce agricultural residue availability, providing a year round lipid stream that keeps refinery utilisation high. This resilience helps ports secure steady green fuel supply contracts, a key requirement for global carriers planning carbon neutral routes.

Conclusion

By merging waste management with advanced biochemistry, FLEXI GREEN FUELS demonstrates how Europe can deliver reliable renewable fuel for the maritime sector. The project progress highlights a practical pathway toward cleaner oceans, stronger circular economies, and energy independence for coastal communities.

Source – Quantum Commodity Intelligence

FuelEU Drivers Encourage Collective Sourcing

European FuelEU Maritime regulation rewards real well to wake greenhouse gas reductions rather than particular fuel choices. Many operators lack enough scale to source advanced bio LNG alone. Gasum has introduced a pooling service that combines orders from several owners, securing consistent volumes at predictable pricing. Pooled purchasing also lets smaller fleets access the same discounts and logistics efficiency normally enjoyed by very large liner companies.

How the Model Works

Certified Production

Gasum blends biogenic methane produced from agricultural residue and biodegradable waste with conventional LNG along a mass balance system. Every gram of bio origin methane is tracked with

internationally recognised Guarantees of Origin. Those certificates are then digitally allocated to participating vessels according to their booked volume, providing the paperwork needed for regulators and charterers.

Flexible Allocation

Instead of tying the molecule to a single voyage, Gasum allows customers to draw from a common environmental wallet. Operators simply decide when to assign certificates, enabling intelligent matching of green fuel credits with the most demanding trade lanes. This flexibility can reduce compliance cost because not every voyage needs premium fuel.

A Non-Obvious Insight

By combining feedstock demand across many buyers, Gasum can contract farmers and waste processors for multi year residue offtake. That long range visibility encourages investment in new biogas plants near ports, shortening truck journeys for substrate and digestate. Shorter overland legs quietly reduce scope three emissions and operating cost, an efficiency gain often missed when evaluating marine fuel options in isolation.

Conclusion

Gasum shows that collaboration can unlock advanced fuels for every fleet size while quietly stimulating regional circular economy hubs. Pooling turns regulation from burden into catalyst, letting owners concentrate on reliable service while environmental math is handled transparently in the background. Bio LNG momentum looks set to accelerate.

Source – The Motorship