The Bahamas has been rebuilding after the devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian in September, with a little help from MSC.

A global leader in the shipping and logistics industry, MSC has used its equipment and expertise to deliver some 200 containers filled with life-saving relief supplies to Grand Bahama Island since the storm cleared.

Dozens were killed and thousands left homeless after Hurricane Dorian ravaged the islands in September. Under a joint initiative with the non-profit MSC Foundation, the company enlisted the help of scores of customers and partners to collect donated items that matched the aid requirements outlined by the Bahamian government.

MSC was able to carry thousands of useful contributions such as building materials, generators, tarpaulins, water, food, sanitary and medical supplies to needy people in the Bahamas. MSC arranged warehousing for goods collected in the USA and started delivering as soon as Freeport Container Terminal in the Bahamas reopened after the storm had passed.

Hurricane Dorian left Freeport Container Terminal without power for a number of days and it was temporarily unable to operate the ship-to-shore gantry cranes, which are used to extract containers from the vessel.

Therefore, MSC initially had to source a vessel with its own cranes onboard to deliver the goods.

All around the MSC network, shipping agencies jumped into action in order to support the initiative. MSC UK, for example, connected a British shipper to the relief effort in order to send a 40-foot container of helpful supplies across the Atlantic to the disaster zone.

MSC continues to offer support for the relief and reconstruction of the Bahamas and will work hand-in-hand with the MSC Foundation, which was launched this year to implement a variety of humanitarian, charitable and conservation initiatives, as well as with the Bahamian government.

NYK cooperated with a ship tour sponsored by Mazda Motor Corporation at the port of Mitajiri-Nakanoseki by escorting about 20 children and their families on board an NYK-operated pure car and truck carrier (PCTC).

Since 1996, Mazda Motor Corporation has regularly held a tour of this kind as one of its social contribution activities at the port of Hiroshima. The company has also started the tour at the port of Mitajiri-Nakanoseki since 2013 to give children an understanding of the Japanese car industry.

Participants viewed cars produced at Mazda’s Hofu plant being loaded on the NYK-operated PCTC Cepheus Leader, and the group then toured the inside of the ship, including the bridge and engine room, together with 12 NYK employees acting as escorts.

NYK will continue to work positively as a good corporate citizen on activities that contribute to our society.

MAN Energy Solutions and Wessels Marine GmbH have announced a technical showcase whereby the 2017-retrofitted ‘Wes Amelie’, a 1,036-teu feeder container ship, will use liquefied SNG (Synthetic Natural Gas) produced from renewable electrical energy as drop-in fuel.

The companies are cooperating on the Wes Amelie project with Nauticor, the LNG transportation company, and Unifeeder, the charter company.

To demonstrate that SNG can successfully be used as shipping fuel, 20 of the 120 tons of LNG that the Wes Amelie typically uses per round trip will be replaced by climate-neutral SNG. As a result, CO₂ emissions are expected to decline by 56 tons for this trip.

Automobile manufacturer Audi’s Power-to-Gas facility in Werlte, where a liquefaction plant is currently under construction, will provide the SNG, which will be generated by wind energy and is thus 100% climate-neutral. The SNG trip will take place after the completion of the liquefaction plant in Q2 2020.

The Wes Amelie, owned and managed by Wessels Reederei (Haren/Ems), previously made headlines in 2017 when its MAN 8L48/60B main engine was retrofitted to its current, four-stroke MAN 51/60DF unit that enables dual-fuel operation – the first such conversion of its type the world had ever seen.

Stefan Eefting – Head of MAN PrimeServ in Augsburg – said: “This is another important milestone and proof of concept for the Maritime Energy Transition, the initiative we have been driving since 2016. We strongly believe that a roadmap based on LNG and SNG as fuels can lead the way to a decarbonised future for shipping and, in Wessels Marine, we have the perfect partner.”

“The Wes Amelie project has always been about demonstrating the technologically doable while pointing out the regulatory actions necessary to make it possible,” said Christian Hoepfner, Managing Owner of Wessels Marine, Hamburg. “The initial retrofit to LNG took support from the German Government to be financially viable, but it was a huge success for the environment in that it drastically reduced emissions. As a consequence, there now is a retrofit programme in place to make more retrofits happen.”

He continued: “In another world-first, we will now demonstrate that SNG can successfully be used to reduce harmful emissions even further as the fuel is climate-neutral. However the costs are still way too high. Going forward, governments and regulators will have to work together to make this a viable and available option for ship owners.”

Stefan Eefting added: “To bring down future emissions generated in the global-trade supply chain, synthetic fuels play a crucial role. Especially in shipping, the use of batteries alone is not a viable option and any successful decarbonisation efforts need to address the fuel. Power-to-X technology allows the generation of 100% climate-neutral natural gas from renewable energy. This technology has tremedous potential and needs to be freed from regulatory burdens and to be developed on an industrial scale to bring down costs.”

A pioneer of this technology, MAN Energy Solutions commissioned the Werlte-based methanation plant, in partnership with Audi, in 2013. While the 6 MW methanation unit is still the largest of its kind in Europe today, MAN now offers a 50 MW EPC Power-to-X solution to ramp up the generation of synthetic fuel: “We need Power-to-X out of the labs and into the market in order to produce more competitive, renewable fuels by using scaling effects”, concluded Eefting.

The Maritime Energy Transition

MAN Energy Solutions believes that it is time for what it calls a ‘Maritime Energy Transition’ to find clean, decarbonised solutions for seaborne trade and transportation. Essentially, it is the company’s call to action to reduce emissions and establish natural gases as the fuels of choice in global shipping. It strongly promotes a global ‘turn to gas’, driven by the IMO, and a common approach by the shipping industry and politics to invest in infrastructure development and retrofits.

“Industry and Government need to make an effort now and to invest in LNG infrastructure to free the way for SNG-based, climate-neutral shipping tomorrow”, concluded Eefting. “Any LNG-retrofitted ship can also run on SNG – that’s what we want to demonstrate:”

To date, MAN Energy Solutions’ entire portfolio of dual-fuel engines has won almost 400 projects in total, all running on clean fuels such as LNG and LPG, testament to its leadership within this critical market segment.

Wes Amelie conversion

The ship-owning company from Haren/Ems, Wessels Reederei, initiated the pioneering conversion of the Wes Amelie to dual-fuel running in 2017. A milestone within the development of the European container-feeder market, the conversion showed that existing engines could be converted to LNG operation with a tremendous effect on exhaust emissions and the environment.

MAN Energy Solutions reports that the retrofit enabled the Wes Amelie to significantly reduce its SO_x emissions by >99%, NO_x by approximately 90%, and CO₂ by up to 20%. As a result, the vessel now meets both Tier II and Tier III emission requirements set by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).