Exploring Green Methanol as a Sustainable Cruise Fuel

June 30, 2025

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(Port of Seattle) This information is adapted from a webinar held on June 27, 2024. For more information, watch the webinar recording.

Part 1: Cruise Green Corridor Progress Report
Part 2: Cruise Green Corridor Feasibility Study
Part 4: Global Green Corridors, coming August 2025
Part 5: The Future of Global Green Corridors, coming July 2025

Participants:

Vesa Koivumaa, Head of Customer Delivery, Wartsila North America, Inc.
Stephanie Jones Stebbins, Managing Director, Maritime Division, Port of Seattle
Bob Alton, Senior Director Technical Programs and Decarbonization, Princess Cruises
Mark Stark, Sustainability Advisor at the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping

Q: Why was green methanol chosen as a field of focus? What other fuels were considered feasible?

A: Mark Stark, Sustainability Advisor at the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping When we went through the scoping phase for the feasibility study, we considered multiple fuels but like I mentioned before what you need is an entire stakeholder buy-in and the green methanol was one fuel where we had all the parties saying “we're interested and passionate about understanding the feasibility of using that.”

It's not to say that anybody wouldn't want to invest in anything else. I'm sure there are lots of other potential avenues to go down. But this was the one fuel where we got buy-in from all the stakeholders which — from our experience in these green corridor projects — is vital to move them forward at speed.

A: Bob Alton, Senior Director Technical Programs and Decarbonization, Princess Cruises
From our perspective, we looked at a number of fuels. But green methanol came out with a high potential for sustainability from a long-term perspective, so that's one of the other reasons that that we selected it.

Q: As an industry partner, what do you see as the biggest challenge? Tell us about green methanol. How would you implement and at what cost?

A: Bob Alton, Senior Director Technical Programs and Decarbonization, Princess Cruises

As an industry, we are very committed to the pursuit of net zero emissions. There are of course a number of alternative fuel options on the table and under evaluation. And they all have different opportunities and challenges. For the cruise sector, more frequent bunkering operations actually afford considerable opportunity for fuel flexibility. This emphasis on flexibility is a high priority as we move forward and a better understanding of green methanol is of course a key opportunity.

This is an important initiative. We are working with our industry and regulatory partners exploring how best to address methanol supply, handling, and storage, as well as operational considerations including safety and training.

Methanol, as we know, does come with its own unique challenges around handling, storage, and consumption. Which in turn impacts the vessel range when compared to standard fossil fuels. This challenge of methanol being a lower energy dense fuel compared to standard fuels only increases our focus on energy efficiency.

Establishing a solid supply chain infrastructure for cleaner fuels will play directly to the opportunities presented. Our port bunkering strategy can only benefit the application of this low carbon fuel. When considering retrofit upgrades, we are working with our development partners to leverage their considerable expertise to realize a safe fuel flexible platform. While at the same time being able to maintain operations on multiple alternative fuels, including biodiesel and methanol.

It is also interesting to consider that a well-designed retrofit installation on a modern cruise ship does have the potential to achieve fuel flexibility in an incrementally shorter timeframe.

Q: What questions are you looking to answer through the feasibility study?

A: Stephanie Jones Stebbins, Managing Director of the Maritime Division, Port of Seattle
The feasibility study sets up the research. It asks the question of what it will take to have four cruise ships running their full Alaska itinerary on green methanol by 2032? Right now we don't know all the elements needed to make that happen. And there's no guarantee going into this work that the vessels will be on the water by that date.

There are lots of things out of our control as we look to fully decarbonize. The study identifies opportunities, the gaps that remain, and what we need in place to make this feasible for cruise in our region.

It really provides critical information that we need to implement our vision in the long haul. For example, the ports will be looking at what we need to support bunkering of green methanol for cruise ships.

The study will assess the current state of fuel storage and bunkering infrastructure and identify where we need retrofits or new infrastructure in order to store and bunker the amount of green methanol that we need for four cruise ships.

The study will also assess what kind of policy and regulatory gaps we have for home ports to safely bunker the new fuel. And how the ports of call in Alaska and British Columbia can receive a ship running on green methanol. We will need new regulatory and safety frameworks to make all this work. So those are just some of the questions that the feasibility study will be looking at.

A: Bob Alton, Senior Director Technical Programs and Decarbonization, Princess Cruises

The feasibility study will look at all aspects of supplying a sustainable maritime fuel relative to more traditional fuels. There is a doubt that the availability of alternative cost competitive maritime fuels at scale is possible. So that’s a key issue today. This is why the maritime sector is asking the US Department of Energy to support a sustainable maritime fuel challenge focused on production development and the use of low emission alternative fuels. READ MORE WATCH recorded presentation (Pacific Northwest to Alaska Green Corridor for Cruise Webinar | June 27, 2024)

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