Inter Terminals Sweden (ITS) and the Port of Gothenburg have a shared vision to develop Gothenburg into Northern Europe’s primary hub for bunkering and storage of methanol. With a strategically good location, where one fifth of all the world’s ship traffic passes, Gothenburg will be an important location, as shipping gradually switches to more sustainable marine fuels.
The Port of Gothenburg has worked intensively to develop a regulatory framework for methanol bunkering. As a partner in this field, ITS now aims to offer services for bunkering of methanol in the Port of Gothenburg before end of 2023. Preparations are on-going to rebuild some of the tanks and the related infrastructure to enable bunkering of methanol.
One of the challenges in this adaptation is to manage the gases from methanol when loading and this will be handled through a VRU (Vapor Recovery Unit). A VRU is a prerequisite for reducing environmental impact and for creating a healthy working environment for the port workers. Works are in progress to define a suitable placement of the planned VRU.
Lena Lilienberg, Head of Business Area Energy at the Port of Gothenburg, comment the collaboration between the Port and ITS:
“We are very pleased that there are plans in the nearby future for storage of methanol at the Energy Port in Gothenburg for continued bunkering of vessels in the Gothenburg area. We want to continue to be an attractive bunker hub, and this creates good conditions for an even better marine fuel when eMethanol or bio-methanol is available.”
As Johan Zettergren, Managing Director of ITS, points out:
“We experience a strong demand from several parties to get going already this year, either for their customers or for their own use. With the successive introduction of renewable methanol, we plan to be able to provide those services too, as soon as this fuel is available on the market.”
Source ITS Inter Terminals Sweden AB