The Na­tion­al En­er­gy Cor­po­ra­tion of T&T Ltd has signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing (MOU) with Methanex Trinidad Ltd to con­duct a fea­si­bil­i­ty study to ex­plore the vi­a­bil­i­ty of methanol as an al­ter­na­tive fu­el for trans­port in this coun­try and the re­gion.

A joint state­ment ex­plained that this MOU rep­re­sents a pub­lic-pri­vate sec­tor part­ner­ship in sup­port of the Gov­ern­ment’s Paris Agree­ment com­mit­ment to re­duce green­house gas emis­sions by 15 per cent by 2030 from a 2013 base­line.

It said when com­pared to con­ven­tion­al ma­rine fu­els, methanol as a clean-burn­ing liq­uid fu­el has the im­me­di­ate abil­i­ty to meet the In­ter­na­tion­al Mar­itime Or­gan­i­sa­tion reg­u­la­tions (IMO) 2020 air qual­i­ty emis­sions reg­u­la­tions that ben­e­fit hu­man health.

It added that methanol as a ma­rine fu­el can re­duce sul­phur ox­ide and par­tic­u­late mat­ter emis­sions by more than 95 per cent, ni­tro­gen ox­ide by up to 80 per cent and CO2 emis­sions dur­ing com­bus­tion by up to 15 per cent.

Methanol al­so of­fers mul­ti­ple path­ways to de­car­bon­i­sa­tion to meet fu­ture emis­sion com­pli­ance, in­clud­ing the IMO’s 2030 and 2050 de­car­bon­i­sa­tion goals.

In ad­di­tion, the state­ment said there is grow­ing in­ter­est in methanol as an al­ter­na­tive fu­el for road trans­porta­tion due to its emis­sion ben­e­fits.

It added the study will de­ter­mine the fea­si­bil­i­ty of the use of do­mes­ti­cal­ly pro­duced methanol as a ma­rine fu­el in the re­gion, thus sub­sti­tut­ing for im­port­ed diesel and heavy fu­el oils in T&T as a ve­hi­cle fu­el.

Methanex methanol-fueled ships at National Energy’s Savonetta Pier 4 on August.

COURTESY NATIONAL ENERGY AND METHANEX

“As the world’s largest pro­duc­er and sup­pli­er of methanol glob­al­ly, Methanex is ac­tive­ly sup­port­ing the adop­tion of methanol as an al­ter­na­tive ma­rine and au­to­mo­tive fu­el and brings its renowned ex­per­tise to­wards this part­ner­ship,” the state­ment said.

For ex­am­ple, it said through its sub­sidiary Wa­ter­front Ship­ping, Methanex cur­rent­ly op­er­ates a fleet of 12 methanol-fu­elled ships.

By 2023, about 60 per cent of its 30-ship fleet will op­er­ate on methanol dual-fu­el tech­nol­o­gy cre­at­ing a fleet ca­pa­ble of hav­ing one of the world’s low­est emis­sion pro­files.

Pres­i­dent and man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Methanex Col­in Bain said he is op­ti­mistic about the part­ner­ship adding, “The MOU is a key step for­ward for T&T. Methanol, with its clean burn­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics makes it an at­trac­tive path­way com­pared to con­ven­tion­al trans­port fu­el and a step to­wards T&T’s green agen­da tar­gets.”

Bain said Methanex and Na­tion­al En­er­gy have a rich his­to­ry of col­lab­o­ra­tion. Na­tion­al En­er­gy is al­so tak­ing a lead­ing role in the en­er­gy tran­si­tion.

Pres­i­dent Dr Ver­non Pal­too who al­so wel­comed the part­ner­ship said with over 40 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in the de­vel­op­ment of the en­er­gy in­dus­try, the com­pa­ny is well-po­si­tioned to play an in­te­gral role in tran­si­tion­ing T&T to a low-car­bon fu­ture.

“The work aris­ing out of this MOU will sure­ly change the nar­ra­tive for us­ing al­ter­na­tive fu­els lo­cal­ly. As a mem­ber of The NGC Group, the ex­e­cu­tion of this MOU be­tween Na­tion­al En­er­gy and Methanex ad­vances the group’s green agen­da for a sus­tain­able fu­ture for the peo­ple of T&T,” he added.