Swedish ship designers create marine methanol.com

ScandiNAOS AB,  a Swedish company focused on ship design, sea cargo handling, and logistics, has created a website focused on the use of methanol as a marine fuel: www.marinemethol.com. This is a function of the company’s devotion to creating energy efficient and sustainable shipping. As their website notes:

“During the past years much of ScandiNAOS’s efforts has been devoted to alternative fuels, methanol in particular, and energy efficiency in general through the EffShip project and its successors. Specific goals for the EffShip project included improving the efficiency of the ship machinery, introducing alternative marine fuels, using wind energy as a complementary propulsion force and developing applicable technology for reducing the emissions of CO2, NOx, SOx and Particulate Matter.

In the SPIRETH project that followed a DME-methanol mixture (OBATETM) was tried on board Stena Scanrail. Besides the technological aspects of the project issues regarding classification and flag state approval were major parts in the project. While the SPIRETH project is still active, ScandiNAOS is a partner in Stena Lines work to convert Stena Germanica to methanol.”

Here in British Columbia, BC Ferries, which operates the world’s second largest ferry system,  is looking to convert some of its ships to LNG, a fuel that ScandiNAOS unequivocally states is inferior to methanol as a shipping fuel. Given that the BC government owns BC Ferries and sees LNG as a $1 trillion industry in the province over the next three decades, BC Ferries’ current approach is not surprising. Over the next few years, however, as the plans of Blue Fuel Energy and Canadian Methanol approach fruition, it would not be surprising to see BC Ferries give methanol a much closer look. Time will tell.