Maersk reveals designs for methanol-powered container ships

Earlier this year container ship behemoth Maersk ordered a series of 16,000-TEU container vessels to be built by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries. The ships will feature a dual-fuel engine setup that can operate on conventional low-sulphur diesel fuel as well as methanol.

The vessels will have the fuel capacity to complete an entire round-trip, for example Asia to Europe and back, using green methanol.

According to Maersk, the vessels’ design allows for a 20% improved energy efficiency per transported container, when compared with the industry average for vessels of similar size. Additionally, the entire series is expected to save around 1M tonnes of annual CO₂ emissions.

The vessels will measure 350 m x 53 m and look ’significantly different’ from any existing larger container vessels. The crew accommodation and bridge will be located at the bow to enable increased container capacity and the funnel will be in the aft, and only on one side of the vessel, to save space for cargo. This separation between accommodation and funnel is expected to improve efficiency when at the port.