Biofuel the standout for the next decade, says OceanScore

European shipping lines’ alliance with green methanol – and a number of associated retrofits – might have come to an end, with Hamburg-based OceanScore asserting that biofuel, specifically residual or ‘waste’ biofuel rather than crop or feedstock-based, is likely the better way to meet with FuelEU regulations.

A small number of high-profile retrofits have taken place to allow existing vessels to burn methanol for fuel. But as OceanScore managing director Albrecht Grell told Ship Repair Newsletter this week, burning drop-in bio-based fuels usually required no retrofits to be made to existing vessels.

Unlike many forms of ship regulation, FuelEU also stands to make a profit for early-adopting shipowners, thanks to the inbuilt ‘pooling’ mechanism. “In this theoretical example, if you were bunkering B100 and you found somebody to buy the (FuelEU) benefit surplus from you, you would actually be bunkering for – EUR 240 per tonne – so you are making money by bunkering,” he said.

The development could go some way to explaining the recent U-turn on green methanol from Maersk Line, which seems to favour LNG. “That's a price innovators pay, and we know shipping is difficult with innovation because it's slowly adopting and it's easy to copy,” explained Grell. “I think it’s a good thing they did that.”