Laura will begin operating in the Baltic Sea in October, Maersk said.
Copenhagen, Denmark:
Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, on Thursday named the world’s first bio-methanol container ship, Laura, which joined the fleet of Danish shipping giant Maersk.
Built in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and equipped with a dual-fuel engine, Laura is a relatively small model that can transport 2,136 20-foot containers (TEU).
It will become operational in the Baltic Sea in October, Maersk said.
“Green methanol is our fuel of choice… because it is the only scalable solution that can meet net zero emissions requirements,” Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said at the inauguration ceremony at the Port of Copenhagen on Thursday.
“Neither we nor the climate can afford complacency or wait until other solutions emerge in the late 2020s,” he added.
In line with tradition when christening ships, Van der Leyen then waved a bottle of champagne over the ship’s hull.
Green methanol, also known as ‘e-methanol’, consists of waste carbon dioxide (CO2) and ‘green hydrogen’, which is created by using renewable energy to split water molecules.
Over the past two years, Maersk, the world leader in container shipping, has ordered 25 ships running on green methanol.
Of these, 19 are under construction and should be completed by 2025.
The company estimates that this will enable the company to reduce its annual CO2 emissions by approximately 2.3 million tonnes.
Laura alone will help reduce CO2 emissions by 100 tonnes per day, compared to the same ship running on fuel oil, the report said.
On a global scale, maritime transport is more polluting than air transport, according to the Higher Institute for Maritime Economics (ISEMAR).
According to the latest figures from the International Maritime Organization, the sector is responsible for 2.89 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions.
Maersk, which sold its oil division to TotalEnergies in 2017, wants to be climate neutral by 2040.
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