{"id":336944,"date":"2026-02-16T08:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/noticias\/methanol-on-pause-ready-fuel-awaiting-market-signals\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:11:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T14:11:49","slug":"methanol-on-pause-ready-fuel-awaiting-market-signals","status":"publish","type":"noticias","link":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/news\/methanol-on-pause-ready-fuel-awaiting-market-signals\/","title":{"rendered":"Methanol on pause: ready fuel awaiting market signals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Methanol has become one of the most watched alternative fuels in the shipping decarbonization agenda ,<\/a> but its mass adoption is still conditioned by cost and regulatory uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n

This is the main conclusion of the latest episode of DNV’s Maritime Impact podcast, in which Eirik Nyhus talks to Marius Leisner, one of the authors on low-emission fuels.<\/p>\n\n

For DNV, in the short term the key constraint is not so much physical availability, but the lack of sustained demand for low GHG footprint methanol from the maritime sector.<\/p>\n\n

A fuel with ten years of experience at sea<\/h2>\n\n

Although it may seem a novelty today, methanol already has nearly a decade of experience as a marine fuel, with pioneers such as the Stena Germanica<\/a> ferry and a first wave of chemical tankers using their own cargo as fuel.<\/p>\n\n

Its initial appeal was not linked to CO\u2082, but to compliance with local environmental standards: methanol contains no sulfur, helps comply with MARPOL Annex VI and burns cleanly, with low NOx emissions and virtually no soot or particulates.<\/p>\n\n

From a greenhouse gas perspective, methanol offers about 7% lower CO\u2082 tank-to-tank emissions than heavy fuel oil, but its well-to-tank performance depends entirely on the carbon source.<\/p>\n\n

Ready technology and a fleet that already relies on methanol<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

In terms of technology, the industry is not starting from scratch. Two-stroke methanol engines have accumulated hundreds of thousands of hours of commercial operation, while manufacturers such as W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4 and other suppliers already offer four-stroke solutions capable of burning methanol. <\/p>\n\n

According to DNV, at the time of publication of its report, there were more than 80 methanol-capable vessels in service and some 370 on order, confirming that shipowners see methanol as a realistic pathway within their transition strategy.<\/p>\n\n

Infrastructure is not an insurmountable obstacle either. Methanol is one of the most transported chemicals in the world, with storage capacity in more than a hundred ports and an emerging fleet of vessels dedicated to the storage of this fuel. <\/p>\n\n

FuelEU vs. OMI NetZero: the policy that will define the adoption curve <\/h2>\n\n

Marius Leisner’s team modeled different low-emission methanol demand scenarios for the world fleet, combining capacity growth assumptions with different levels of fuel utilization.<\/p>\n\n

Under a minimum framework, where only what is necessary to meet FuelEU Maritime is done, demand could be in the range of 5 to 12 million tons by 2040; with an ambitious NetZero Framework at IMO, methanol use could rapidly escalate to 20-50 million tons, and even more in a peak use scenario driven by strong incentives or cost competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n

In this context, DNV’s message is that methanol is “ready” technologically and industrially, but needs a combination of competitive pricing, long-term contracts and consistent regulatory frameworks to unlock its full potential as a transitional and target fuel for international shipping.<\/p>\n\n

https:\/\/www.dnv.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Photo: Shutterstock<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Methanol, now technologically ready, continues to be held back by costs, uncertain regulation and lack of firm demand in shipping<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8059,"featured_media":334695,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categoria_noticias":[13026,13044],"etiqueta_noticias":[],"class_list":["post-336944","noticias","type-noticias","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categoria_noticias-energy","categoria_noticias-new-energies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias\/336944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/noticias"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8059"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias\/336944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categoria_noticias","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categoria_noticias?post=336944"},{"taxonomy":"etiqueta_noticias","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/etiqueta_noticias?post=336944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}