In the UK, Chartwell Marine announced that the company won a $ 395,000 grant from the government. The firm noted that the Innovate UK Smart Grant will enable Chartwell and consortium partners — Boat Electric & Electronics and Engineered Marine Systems — to develop and test the feasibility of a methanol-fuelled vessel design, with applications in the offshore wind, commercial workboat and leisure sectors. Andy Page, Director and Naval Architect at Chartwell Marine, said: “We’re grateful to Innovate UK for the opportunity to delve deeper into the feasibility of methanol-based propulsion. As a company, we’ve delivered over 30% of hybrid vessels in the UK offshore wind market, all complete with the latest state of the art electric-diesel hybrid technology.” “That gives us a great starting point to take methanol forward in a meaningful way and cut through some of the challenges we’ve seen in the development of alternative fuels, which may be a long time from full viability. There are still hurdles to overcome with methanol, of course: a lack of refueling infrastructure onshore, weight issues, and fully efficient conversion to energy, to name some,” he said. “But with the right investment and build partners, we can use our expertise in offshore wind vessel design to target these challenges and create a proof-of-concept methanol vessel that will be cost-effective, well-engineered and hydrodynamically optimized for deployment worldwide,” Page added.
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