We will start by mentioning that ships are responsible for 2.5% of global emissions and the goal of all shipping companies is to reduce this percentage by half by 2050, compared to 2008 data.

Maersk is a Danish merchant shipping company and the largest of its kind in the world. Its goal is in two years, in 2023, to have a merchant ship of 2,000 containers that will run on biofuels. By 2050 it intends to have only ships that do not emit pollutants.

This ship will be the first commercial one that can run on biofuels but also on conventional oil. Today there are ships that can run on both conventional fuel and natural gas. However, this ship will be able to run on biomethanol because it is a fuel that is available nowadays. But the company is also working on the possibility of using ammonia in the future.

So the company works with shipbuilding companies to develop the dual power system.

In the future, the goal is to use biofuels for huge ships of 20,000 containers to travel thousands of kilometers without emitting exhaust fumes.

[Source: http://www.wsj.com]