One of France’s busiest ports has told Bunkerspot that shipping’s energy transition represents an opportunity for some ports to become hubs for e-fuel production and redraw the global bunkering map for future fuels.
‘Ports have always played a role as hubs for the production and distribution of energy. Today, this is mostly from fossil fuels, but going forward we’ll have decarbonised energy, so we need to position ourselves on this,’ said Krishnaraj Danaradjou, Deputy General Manager for Development at HAROPA Port, which brings together the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris.
HAROPA recently announced a €2.6 billion investment in three projects aimed at producing green fuels, as well as refining lithium used for batteries, directly on the ports’ grounds.
The investment includes a project led by French renewable energy company Qair for the production of 200,000 tonnes of e-methanol annually, some of which is intended for maritime transport, and another initiative by US-based Air Products to produce renewable hydrogen from ammonia.
The port is confident of future demand for green hydrogen, Danaradjou said, because the molecule will be needed to decarbonise its own industrial cluster, which currently uses around 300,000 tonnes of grey hydrogen annually. ‘It’s urgent and important to replace some of this grey energy with green energy,’ he argued.
‘Our vision is that by combining hydrogen and CO2 that we have in large quantities from industrial sources, we can obtain some synthetic molecules, including e-methanol and e-methane, or e-kerosene for sustainable aviation fuel,’ Danaradjou added.
HAROPA currently supplies up to 5 million tonnes of kerosene to Paris’ airports through pipelines each year. ‘So, we are on the front line to inject SAF instead of kerosene in the future. That is a clear strategy for us.’
Developing bunkering
While acknowledging that that ‘the picture is rather less clear’ for future demand from shipping companies, Danaradjou believes that the proximity of production and bunkering sites could enable ports to be better positioned in the nascent e-fuel market and offer more flexibility to potential maritime offtakers.
‘We hope that this will give us a competitive advantage. If the production site is next to the bunkering locations, we can respond to demand even at the last minute, while if you need to bring in the fuel from other locations, you need to plan ahead more.’
Qair’s e-methanol production project will be about 15 kilometres from Le Havre’s maritime terminals. Danaradjou describes this as ‘an ideal situation’ for HAROPA, which is host to about 6,500 port stays every year.
The next priority will be to develop a plan for bunkering infrastructure, which will identify suitable locations, analyse risk, and develop bunkering procedures.
This plan will need to be in keeping with the strategies of terminal operators and shipping companies, Danaradjou emphasised. ‘The challenge is to be able to properly understand and map out the needs of shipping companies more precisely.’
HAROPA wants to avoid a repeat of some setbacks experienced whilst developing LNG bunkering infrastructure nearly a decade ago. Significant investments were made to make the port of Le Havre ‘LNG-ready’ in anticipation of mass vessel conversions that failed to materialise.
‘That took up resources to prepare for something that didn’t happen,’ Danaradjou remarked. ‘With methanol and future e-fuels, it is essential that we can work with confidence with maritime companies, to make sure our roadmaps are aligned.’
Given that alternative fuels, including methanol, have a lower energy density than their conventional counterparts, he anticipates that companies will need to reorganise their routes to account for the need to bunker more often.
He believes this represents an opportunity for some ports that are strategically located to position themselves as new bunkering hubs.
‘Today’s world bunkering map was drawn by heavy fuel oil,’ Danaradjou said, adding: ‘I am convinced that this map will be completely changed by e-methanol, because the energy density isn’t the same, so we will need more bunkering port hubs.’
Shoreside power
In parallel, HAROPA is developing shoreside power infrastructure. The port authority plans to increase the number of charging points for inland waterway vessels along the Seine from 30 currently to more than 100 by the end of the year.
Next on the list will be cruise terminals, with one charging point scheduled to be operational in the spring, in time for the next cruise season, and two more to be added by the end of 2026. The electrification of container terminals is set to be completed by 2028, two years ahead of mandates imposed by EU regulation.
However, Danaradjou pointed out that government support will be essential to make this shoreside electricity offering commercially viable.
‘If we don’t get government funding, the cost of electricity will necessarily be more expensive, because it will include the investments that we have made upstream,’ he explained. ‘This is where we have to be careful, because if electricity is too expensive, ships will not connect and will prefer to use their generators.’
While ports will ‘need every possible funding and support’ to play their part in shipping’s decarbonisation, Danaradjou also emphasised that they can play a proactive role by putting forward plans ahead of regulation.
‘We’re working on technologies that are very innovative and on which regulation hasn’t been developed,’ he noted. ‘The role of ports is to anticipate these and present a proposal as comprehensive as possible to the authorities, rather than wait for the authorities to build the framework.’
Related: HAROPA PORT reports 8.8% increase in H1 2024 maritime traffic
Photo: Krishnaraj Danaradjou, Deputy General Manager for Development at HAROPA Port (credit: HAROPA)
