FUEL OF THE FUTURE

Archipelago Yachts is convinced that methanol is the key to a cleaner, greener future and has designed a long-range power catamaran to prove it, reports Hugo Andreae

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Stephen Weatherley is a man on a mission. As well as being the founder and CEO of Archipelago Expedition Yachts, a British-built range of aluminium motor catamarans, he's also trying to resolve the intractable issue of how to make offshore motor yachts greener. "There are currently five possible green fuels," points out Weatherly, succinctly. "Hydrogen, ammonia, LNG (liquid natural gas), batteries and methanol. Ammonia and hydrogen are difficult to store on board a boat, LNG is a fossil fuel so emissions reductions are limited and batteries don't have the range to power a true offshore vessel. That leaves methanol as the only viable fuel."

POWERED BY METHANOL

He's not alone in coming to that conclusion. The shipping industry is already adopting methanol as the fuel of the future. According to the Norwegian classification body, DNV, there are now 228 methanol dual fuel-powered ships on order, with methanol overtaking LNG as the green fuel of choice for container carriers.

The reason it also makes sense for leisure boats is because methanol is a liquid rather than a gas, meaning it's easier to transport, store and distribute using existing infrastructure. And it can be burnt in conventional combustion engines, either in combination with fossil fuels like petrol and diesel, or on its own, with only minor adaptations. During the 1970s fuel crisis up to 20,000 methanol-fuelled cars were in use on US roads, while in the 1980s and 1990s small amounts of methanol were regularly blended into European petrol supplies.