Methanol for shipping: quality considerations for reduced environmental impact

The marine sector significantly contributes to global warming, urging the establishment of ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shipping. Given the sector’s reliance on internal combustion engines, advances in fuel technologies are critical, with key considerations including safety and fuel availability. Electrofuels present a promising near-zero GHG emission solutions in view of their potential geographical availability and production volumes. The EU project “UP-TO-ME” is developing technologies to produce e-methanol from the CO2 point-sources by a fully autonomous, selfoptimizing, and compact technology. The UP-TO-ME project also studies end-use aspects of emethanol as marine fuel, focusing on minimum fuel specifications, particularly regarding the exhaust aftertreatment systems (EATS). The study utilized retrofitted high-speed methanol dual-fuel (DF) engines below 1MW, suitable for archipelago transportation and linking also to ground-transport. Thework included experimental combustion analysis and emission measurements that provided the necessary data for the development of engine and EATS simulation models. The emission measurements paid special attention to carcinogenic formaldehyde and climate-warming black carbon emissions, while the sensitivity of the EATS to fuel impurities, including metals, was also assessed. The quality of e-methanol is yet to be established, and the first batches of UP-TO-ME e-methanol provides this data. This paper has been presented and published at the 31st CIMAC World Congress 2025 in Zürich, Switzerland. Aakko-Saksa, P., Westerholm, M., Söderström, C., Pettinen, R., Reinikainen, M., Ntziachristos, L., Kolokotronis, D., Dimaratos, A., & Papadis, N. (2025). E-methanol for shipping: quality considerations for reduced environmental impact: Technical paper 170. Paper presented at 31st CIMAC World Congress, Zürich, Switzerland. https://papers2025.cimaccongress.com/pdf/CIMAC_paper_170.pdf