Green fuel transition presents retrofitting opportunity for shipyards, with some caveats

MORE ships could be retrofitted to run on near zero-carbon fuels such as methanol and ammonia in the coming years, maritime players told The Business Times. The overall market opportunity may, however, be constrained by cost and design challenges.

The market for methanol retrofits has been growing since the retrofitting of the first vessel with a methanol engine in 2015. Among the recent announcements in this space came from Hapag-Lloyd and Seaspan Corp, which intend to retrofit five container ships with engines that can run on methanol.

Retrofits for ammonia, meanwhile, are nascent but progressing. Miner Fortescue in March recorded a world first in the use of ammonia combined with diesel as a marine fuel. The trial was on the Fortescue Green Pioneer, a Singapore-flagged vessel with retrofitted engines, and involved Singapore-listed Seatrium and the local port authority.