The shipping industry could end up facing a significantly larger fuel bill once alternative fuels become a reality, Alphaliner warns.
It may become up to four times as expensive to secure climate-neutral fuels as it is to get low-sulfur ones.
Specifically, fuel bills will be at least 2.5 times higher, but more likely four times higher, Alphaliner warns.
”The expected bunker costs for alternative fuels will be significantly higher than the bunker costs incurred based on the average costs of the last ten years,” the analyst firm writes.
The calculations were based on a scenario in which some of the new fuels would be used on a 24,000-teu container vessel.
The green fuels can be produced via biomass or Power-to-X (PtX), which Alphaliner says is the most expensive option, but also the only one scalable today.
PtX means using electricity to synthesize fuels from CO2 and water. For the fuels to become ”green,” the electricity must come from a carbon-free source such as wind or solar energy.
PtX is one of the ways that major liner company Maersk expects to secure methanol for its forthcoming fleet of climate-neutral ships. The carrier has entered partnerships with six different suppliers that will produce the methanol and deliver it to the vessels.
As the biggest supplier, Danish power company Ørsted will deliver 300,000 tonnes of green methanol per year.
