Maersk’s methanol-enabled boxship calls at Hamburg

A.P. Moller – Maersk (Maersk)’s methanol-enabled container vessel, ‘Ane Maersk’, has arrived at Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg for the first time on its maiden trip from Asia to Europe.

The ‘Ane Maersk’ is the first of its kind to use methanol as fuel and makes a port call in Hamburg.

Axel Mattern, CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing, remarked: “Ane Maersk’s arrival at the Port of Hamburg underscores the maritime sector’s swift progress towards climate neutrality. It reflects the Port of Hamburg’s commitment to carbon neutrality.”

The Ane Maersk boasts a novel ship design, with the bridge superstructures at the very front of the bow, and is 350 metres in length and 53.5 metres wide. This was reportedly necessary to compensate for the cargo room loss caused by the bigger tanks that were required.

Methanol contains around half the energy content of fossil oil. This means that almost twice as much gasoline is required.

Ane Maersk is powered by ecologically friendly bio-methanol, which emits around two-thirds fewer greenhouse emissions than fossil fuels (ultra-low sulphur oil).

Synthetically manufactured e-methanol might lower emissions by more than 90 per cent in the future. E-methanol production plants are now under development, with the first located at Aabenraa in Denmark, just across the German border.

Maersk will also get green e-methanol from the European Energy manufacturing facility, which is scheduled to start operations this summer.

Due to the restricted supply of green methanol worldwide, ‘Ane Maersk’ and her sister ships may also run on biodiesel or fossil ultra-low sulphur oil thanks to dual fuel technology.

Maersk has a further 23 methanol-capable newbuildings (9,000 to 17,000 TEU) in the works till 2027. Methanol has the benefit of being non-toxic and simple to use as a maritime fuel. The ‘Ane Maersk’ is assigned to Maersk’s Asia-Europe liner service (AE-7).

The containership will call at 14 ports in the following order: Ningbo, Shanghai, Nansha, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Colombo, Tangiers, Felixstowe, Hamburg, Antwerp, London, Le Havre, Tangiers, Khalifa Seaport, Jebel Ali (Dubai), and Ningbo.

The 14 vessels, with capacities ranging from 15,300 to 19,100 TEU, require 98 days to complete a round voyage, avoiding the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, and the Cape of Good Hope. The Ane Maersk is scheduled to leave Hamburg for Antwerp on 30 March 2024.

Recently, the Ane Maersk, recently completed its inaugural port call at the Port of Colombo.