Maersk has announced that its 16,592 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) Antonia Maersk was bunkered with 100% ethanol in Barcelona last week. The operation, which took place last Thursday (9 July) at APM Terminals, follows 100% ethanol trials on the company’s first methanol dual-fuel vessel, the 2,100 TEU feeder container ship, Laura Maersk. ‘Drawing on our experience with methanol, we are working with port authorities and partners to establish the infrastructure and operational procedures needed to support ethanol bunkering at key ports,’ Maersk said in a social media post today (15 July). ‘Ethanol is one of several pathways we are exploring to diversify our low-emission fuel […]

CMA CGM’s first 13,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) tri-fuel certified engine containership, CMA CGM Iron, was supplied with bioethanol by a Bunker One barge at the Port of Santos on Sunday (12 July). In a statement issued today, Bunker One said the operation is believed to be the first bioethanol bunkering of a deep-sea container vessel in the region. The fuelling, which was the results of cooperation between sugar and bioethanol trading company, Copersucar, liquid bulk storage operator, AGEO Terminals, and container terminal, Santos Brasil, saw some 500,000 litres of bioethanol delivered to the boxship by the Dona Isa bunker barge. ‘The question is no longer whether […]

With the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) interim guidelines for methanol and ethanol as marine fuel currently under revision, the Brazilian maritime engineer and academic Luciana Suman has pointed that these fuels have different flammability characteristics, which will call for different safety measures. In a paper published via her LinkedIn page today (10 July), Suman – who is the CEO and Technical Director of Marmec Engineering and a Professor at Centro de Instrução Almirante Graça Aranha (CIAGA) – explained that: ‘Ethanol forms a flammable atmosphere at a lower concentration, which is the parameter that governs ventilation and detection; whereas methanol burns […]