IMO's Mandates Help Methanol Gain Traction As Marine Fuel

There are a number of compelling reasons why methanol should be adopted for use as a marine fuel, according to its advocates.

- Alan R. Earls

But the most compelling are the mandates put in place through the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which is putting increasing pressure on vessel operators to cut nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions.

That pressure has resulted in some impressive implementations of methanol as a primary or alternative fuel. The ultimate methanol poster child is Stena Line’s Stena Germanica, a 787-foot ferry providing service between Gothenburg, Sweden, and Kiel, Germany. Prior to its conversion to methanol, the vessel was known as Stena Hollandica and sailed an England-to-Holland route. British Columbia-based Waterfront Shipping, a subsidiary of Methanex Corp., a global giant in methanol production, has built seven 50,000-deadweight-ton tankers powered by two-stroke, dual-fuel engines capable of running on methanol as well as fuel oil, marine diesel oil or gas oil. And in Sweden, a pilot boat has been converted to run on methanol in yet another demonstration program. So far, the tide has not reached the United States, but that could change.

Advocates see methanol as a clean and transitional fuel that could serve well into the future while also potentially leading to the use of other fuels such as ethanol. The IMO’s implementation of sulfur emission control areas (SECAs) in North America and the Caribbean, as well as the North Sea and Baltic Sea in Europe, provided a solid argument in favor of methanol. If that wasn’t enough, the IMO followed up with a directive that nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions also be reduced, at least for newly constructed vessels in North America and the Caribbean. Those mandates have provided a powerful impetus to consider alternative fuels, since compliance otherwise is dependent on obtaining much more expensive low-sulfur fuel or installing either stack scrubbers or catalytic converters.