Tanker owners will have a new choice of yard to order methanol-fuelled ships with news from Japan where Sumitomo Heavy Industries Marine & Engineering has been issued an approval in principle for its new tanker design.
The methanol dual-fuelled tanker design was reviewed by ClassNK.
“In detail design, regarding methanol fuel, due consideration is required to properly reduce potential risk of fire and leakage by its low flash point and toxicity,” a spokesperson for Sumitomo said.
Currently South Korea’s Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and China’s Guangzhou Shipyard International are the world’s top two manufacturers of methanol-fuelled ships, with a host of other yards developing their own designs with interest in the fuel growing.
