Following the announcement of six strategic green methanol partnerships across the globe earlier this year, A.P. Moller - Maersk (Maersk) has added a seventh methanol partnership with Chinese bioenergy enterprise Debo on the quest to boost global production capacity.

The parties have signed a Letter of Intent covering Debo’s plans to develop a bio-methanol project for Maersk in China with capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year to start commercial operation by fall 2024.

Maersk has set an ambitious end-to-end net-zero goal for 2040 and the availability of green methanol at scale is critical to our fleet’s transition to sustainable energy. Partnerships across ecosystems and geographies are essential for the scale-up needed in order to make meaningful progress on this agenda already in this decade. Therefore, we are delighted to welcome Debo on this journey.

—Berit Hinnemann, Head of Green Fuels Sourcing, A.P. Moller - Maersk

The feedstock for the green bio-methanol will be agricultural residues. Maersk intends to offtake the full volume produced.

In March, Maersk announced six partnerships with CIMC ENRIC, European Energy, Green Technology Bank, Orsted, Proman, and WasteFuel with the intent of sourcing at least 730,000 tonnes/year by end of 2025—well beyond the green methanol needed for the first 12 green container vessels currently on order.

Production Capacity Estimation Table

Debo is a high-tech enterprise covering bioenergy technology research and development, production, sales, and operation. The company has committed to the research and industrial application of biomass thermal conversion for more than 15 years with more than 100 biomass gasification projects built in China and abroad.

Debo has rich experience in biomass gasification to synthesize green methanol, natural gas, hydrogen, and aviation kerosene production and established a complete intellectual property protection system.