<\/p>\n
A Chinese shipowner has ordered a fleet of methanol-only bulkers, eschewing dual-fuel technology to run on methanol only. <\/p>\n
Wuhan Innovation Jianghai Transportation has contracted with Jiangsu Qinfeng Shipbuilding to build 16 coastal freighters of about 15,000-20,000 dwt capacity. The vessels will run on a domestically designed methanol-only engine developing 1-2MW of power. It is the first time that a Chinese firm has built coastwise vessels that run on methanol as a single fuel, according to Wuhan Innovation. <\/p>\n
The firm did not specify whether the fuel for these vessels will be green methanol or fossil-based methanol, which accounts for 95 percent of global production. Fossil-based methanol has higher well-to-wake CO2 emissions than conventional bunker fuel oil – especially in markets where commercial-grade methanol is produced from coal, as it often is in China. The Chinese government encourages the use of methanol as a fuel in part because of its low smog-related emissions: when burned, fossil methanol emits far less particulate matter, NOx and SOx at the exhaust stack, even though its lifecycle CO2 emissions are much higher. <\/p>\n
Wuhan owns a fleet of LNG dual-fuel bulkers that operate on coastal and riverine routes, and it has a history of making innovative bets. It has built a specially-designed 10,000-ton vessel that can navigate as far up the Yangtze as Luohuangzhen, on the upriver side of the Three Gorges Dam. The vessel's shallow four-meter draft is capable of passing through the dam's ship elevator, unlike any other vessel in its deadweight capacity class. The firm says that this LNG-powered shipping link is the first of its kind, and reduces the need for multiple barges – saving fuel, time and cost. <\/p>\n
maritime-executive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Chinese shipowner has ordered a fleet of methanol-only bulkers, eschewing dual-fuel technology to run on methanol only. Wuhan Innovation Jianghai Transportation has contracted with Jiangsu Qinfeng Shipbuilding to build 16 coastal freighters of about 15,000-20,000 dwt capacity. The vessels will run on a domestically designed methanol-only engine developing 1-2MW of power. It is the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[121,777,1109,1973,3856,4762,1501],"class_list":["post-49509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maritime-news","tag-bulkers","tag-chinese","tag-firm","tag-fleet","tag-methanol","tag-methanolpowered","tag-orders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/49510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}