ALETTE MAERSK VESSEL FORCED TO SWITCH TO FOSSIL FUEL ON ITS WAY BACK TO CHINA

An important milestone in the maritime industry's drive to cut carbon emissions was reached by the Alette Maersk, which made her debut and was the first ship of its kind to traverse the Pacific on green methanol fuel. The ship sailed from China and made a port stop at Los Angeles for refuelling. However, to its dismay, there was not a single source of clean fuel in the US, so it had to return to petroleum-based marine fuel, while on its return journey to China.

The Shipping Industry accounts for 3% of global greenhouse emissions. There is a pressure to bring down the carbon footprint of the industry by switching over to clean energy powered vessels. With 5 existing inventory, running on green fuel and 20 more vessels in the pipeline, Maersk is considered amongst the front-runners in this mission. But it has to be noted that these ships are dual fuelled, allowing them to switch between green fuel and traditional fossil fuel as the green methanol fuel doesn’t just cost twice or thrice the amount of the regular fossil based fuels but is also not very freely available on all ports.

For the first of Maersk's 12 massive ocean-going tankers to burn that fuel, Goldwind, a clean energy provider from China has promised supplies of green methanol, with delivery beginning in 2026. However, Orsted, a global giant in sustainable energy and another possible provider of the fuel, has postponed its intentions to construct the biggest e-methanol facility in Europe, claiming that the market for green fuels is growing more slowly than anticipated.