Maersk presents the design of eight 16,000 TEU ships powered by carbon neutral methanol

Maersk presented the design of its eight new 16,000 TEU container ships powered by carbon neutral methanol.

This design improves energy efficiency by 20% per transported container compared to the industry average for vessels of this size. Additionally, the entire series is expected to save around one million tons of CO2 emissions every year, providing customers with large-scale carbon-neutral transportation on ocean trades.

The vessels will be 350 meters long, 53.5 meters wide, and will look significantly different from what has been seen before for any larger container vessels. The crew accommodation and bridge will be located at the bow to enable increased container capacity. The funnel will be in the aft, and only on one side of the vessel, thereby providing further space for cargo. This separation between accommodation and funnel will also improve efficiency when at the port.

The construction took nearly five years, constantly crossing uncharted naval design territory. To enable this new design, several challenges had to be addressed. Firstly, crew comfort had to be ensured with the accommodation placed in this more exposed location. Moreover, adequate hull strength was also a key parameter to safeguard, with the accommodation block normally working as a hull “stiffener” when placed further backward. New arrangements for lifeboats and navigational lights had to be developed, plus new cameras to support the captain’s view when navigating.

The series, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries, comes with an innovative dual-fuel engine setup that can operate on methanol and conventional low-sulfur fuel. With fuel capacity, the vessels will be able to complete an entire round-trip, for example, Asia-Europe, on green methanol.

The first vessel is scheduled to be in operation at the beginning of 2024.

Sharing is caring!