Green methanol for container ships

DW (English)

The future belongs to sustainable fuels. Green methanol is set to make container shipping more environmentally friendly. A Berlin start-up is working on making its production more efficient and cheaper.

Transcript

00:00 Container ships, essential for global trade.

00:04 So far they have been running on marine diesel,

00:07 and burning it in the engine emits large amounts of climate-damaging CO2 and other toxins.

00:13 The major shipping companies want to change this,

00:15 and a Berlin startup is working on a solution.

00:19 If you take green methanol, you can power, for example, container ships.

00:23 Methanol for marine engines produced in a climate-neutral way?

00:27 Can this work?

00:28 [MUSIC]

00:33 Marine diesel, a sticky mineral oil, a cheap fuel, and an oil industry waste product.

00:41 Merchant ships emit around 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

00:47 That's more than the whole of Japan at 2.9% in 2021, and emissions will continue to rise.

00:56 Around 11 billion tons of goods are shipped worldwide every year.

01:00 This figure will triple by 2050.

01:05 Maersk, the second largest shipping company in the world, is also one of the culprits.

01:10 But Maersk has a plan.

01:12 It wants to use the synthetic fuel methanol as an alternative to conventional oil.

01:18 We have a problem that needs to be solved.

01:19 Here is a good solution. Let's go with that.

01:22 The group has therefore already ordered 19 methanol-powered ships.

01:27 The first went into operation in the fall of 2023.

01:32 We know it can work because the engine technology is actually proven.

01:35 There is an engine out there that we can order.

01:37 And also from an operational and safety perspective, it's a very manageable fuel.

01:42 In order to obtain the CO2-neutral fuel required,

01:46 the shipping company is investing in the Berlin startup C1, which stands for Carbon One.

01:53 This is what the methanol from their research reactor looks like,

01:57 with a very small ecological footprint.

02:03 The traditional process requires very high pressure,

02:06 and compression is expensive and requires a very high temperature.

02:10 And that's the advantage of our process.

02:13 It's homogenous, meaning the catalyst is dissolved along with the solvent,

02:17 and the reactants are in the solvent.

02:19 We can lower the reaction temperature and pressure through the catalyst,

02:23 which saves a lot of money.

02:26 In the traditional production of methanol, natural gas, coal,

02:30 crude oil or biomass are also used in large quantities, with a high energy input.

02:38 That's different here.

02:39 They require significantly less energy and carbon atoms.

02:43 The process works without fossil resources.

02:48 Conventional methanol is produced in many refineries around the world.

02:52 But the production process has a poor carbon footprint and is too expensive.

03:01 The current process of producing methanol is not well-suited with renewable feedstocks.

03:08 And this is where C1 comes in.

03:10 We've invented this completely new production process.

03:13 We're taking it on a completely new technology curve.

03:16 It's a disruptive technology.

03:19 And the potential is to reduce the cost of green methanol substantially.

03:24 According to the chemists, this test facility is already producing the desired results.

03:30 The startup is currently building a large plant in a major German chemical park.

03:38 Methanol production for marine engines is set to begin by 2027.

03:46 So far, they have received 24 million euros for their project.

03:51 But will the new fuel also be affordable for the shipping companies?

03:55 We're also expecting that over the next couple of years,

03:58 that we will not be able to recoup the entire additional cost for the green fuels,

04:02 because the first couple of years, they're quite expensive.

04:06 But we do actually expect that we will also have to cover some of the cost ourselves.

04:11 And that's also only fair.

04:14 In a few years, the fuel could be refueling the new container ships.

04:20 If all goes well, the startup will be doing good business,

04:24 as its process for green methanol production is patented and unique worldwide.

04:30 (Music)

04:33 (upbeat music)

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