13 December 2023 (Lloyd's List) - X-PRESS Feeders will ply its first methanol-fuel containership, the Eco Maestro, on a feeder network in North Europe with port of Rotterdam as a base.
Starting from the second quarter of next year, the 1,200 teu dual-fuel vessel will work the route from Rotterdam to ports in Scandinavia and the Baltic states.
“X-Press Feeders is most ideally suited to lead the maritime feeder sector in the adoption of green methanol, because we operate smaller, more fuel-efficient vessels on short-sea routes,” said X-Press Feeders chief operating officer Francis Goh.
The 148-metre-long vessel will use bio-methanol for its first voyage to Europe, but Goh admits that the fuel availability and distribution at ports on a global scale is a challenge.
“We aim to power Eco Maestro with green methanol for the entire journey from Shanghai to Rotterdam, but certain ports en route have no infrastructure at present to supply methanol to ships, so we are engaging them to make it possible,” he said.
“Production of green methanol and other sustainable fuels needs to scale up enormously to meet the needs of the global maritime industry.”
Still, supply of biomethanol in Northern Europe is likely to be ample for Eco Maestro, according to Goh.
“As a feeder operator, where our ships tend to operate on shortsea routes within a relatively small geography, the quantities of bio-methanol available are sufficient for our dual-fuel vessels to run ‘closed loop’ services, where about 95% of the entire round voyage can be powered by methanol, with a resupply of fuel at the bunkering port after every voyage,” he said.
Eco Maestro, when deployed on its round voyage service, would save 268kg of CO2 emissions for every teu carried, when compared to a feeder vessel of similar capacity running on conventional marine fuel, X-Press Feeders said in a press release.
Nevertheless, the vessel will face higher fuel prices and expects the EU emission trading system, which is set to include shipping from next year, to help recover the costs.
During a Marine Money conference in September, the company’s chief executive Shmuel Yoskovitz said under its offtake agreement with US supplier OCI
Global, X-Press will use a 65%-70% bio-methanol blend, costing three times more than low sulphur fuel oil.
Eco Maestro is the first of 14 dual-fuel vessels that X-Press Feeders is taking delivery of in the first quarter of next year.
Built in China, Eco Maestro will start its maiden voyage from Shanghai — where the vessel was built — to the Port of Rotterdam via the Suez Canal.
