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Methanol-fueled construction vessels store methanol as a liquid, pump it through a dedicated high-pressure fuel system, and inject it into diesel-cycle engines with a small diesel pilot to ignite it. The clearest working example in the available evidence is Van Oord’s offshore wind installation vessel Boreas, designed around five Wärtsilä 32 methanol engines. Dredger conversions are a different story: published dredger designs are concepts and integration studies, not evidence that those ships have already been converted.
What does a methanol-fueled construction vessel actually do?
It uses methanol as one fuel in a shipboard power plant, not as a replacement for every part of the vessel’s conventional machinery. In the Wärtsilä 32 arrangement described for this class of workboat, methanol is stored in tanks, fed to an engine by pumps, pressurized, and injected into each cylinder. A small quantity of diesel or another oil fuel provides the ignition source. The engine can run on oil fuel alone if the methanol supply is shut off.
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That arrangement matters for ships whose work is hard to predict. A wind installation vessel may have to meet crane, jacking, dynamic-positioning and hotel-power demands; a trailing suction hopper dredger alternates between dredging, pumping, transit and dumping. The engine, fuel tanks, emissions equipment and any energy storage have to work as one plant. A methanol engine alone does not solve the operational or endurance problem.
For evidence, keep three types of project separate: the named newbuild Boreas; a 2025 study of how a methanol engine integrates with dredger drive systems; and earlier concept retrofits for dredgers and a cable-layer. Only the first is a named construction-vessel methanol installation in the sources here. The 2025 paper reports engine tests and analysis against dredging load profiles, not a fleet conversion.
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Which construction vessel is the real-world reference?
Boreas is the reference ship described by its owner, Van Oord. In April 2023, Van Oord said that five Wärtsilä 32 methanol engines had passed factory acceptance tests and been handed over to the Chinese yard building the vessel. The owner said the ship was expected to be commercially available in 2025; the available sources do not confirm its later delivery, sea trials, fuel consumption or measured emissions.
Van Oord describes Boreas as a 175-metre, purpose-built offshore wind installation vessel able to install foundations and turbines for the next generation of 20 MW offshore wind turbines. Its crane can lift more than 3,000 tonnes, and its jacking system is designed for water depths up to 70 metres. The power plant also includes a 5,000 kWh battery pack intended to handle peak loads and regenerate energy, plus selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for nitrogen-oxide control. These features put the fuel system in context: a construction ship must deliver bursts of power and manage emissions as well as carry enough fuel for its work.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteVan Oord’s release also makes an important distinction: two of its new trailing suction hopper dredgers were dual-fuel LNG vessels, while the methanol engines were for Boreas. LNG and methanol are separate fuel choices. The owner’s LNG dredgers should not be described as methanol ships on the basis of that announcement. Van Oord’s announcement of the Boreas engines gives the ship-specific details.
Why can methanol be stored as a liquid?
Methanol, or methyl alcohol (CH3OH), remains liquid at ordinary ambient temperature and pressure. Unlike LNG, it does not need cryogenic storage. That can make its tank and transfer arrangements more familiar than those for a gas fuel, but it does not make a methanol system equivalent to a diesel system: methanol is toxic, has a low flashpoint, can be corrosive to unsuitable materials, and burns with a flame that is difficult to see in daylight.
The storage penalty is substantial. The Maritime Technologies Forum’s 2026 comparison lists methanol at 15.8 GJ per cubic metre and 19.7 MJ per kilogram, versus 36.6 GJ/m³ and 42.7 MJ/kg for marine gas oil (MGO). It says a vessel needs approximately 2.4 times the fuel-storage volume for methanol as for comparable MGO operation. LNG is listed at 20.4 GJ/m³, higher than methanol by volume, although it requires cryogenic handling. These figures describe energy density, not a precise tank-layout rule for every ship. A concept study of the dredger Willem van Oranje used a planning allowance of about 2.5 times the tank volume to preserve the same autonomy.
| Fuel | Energy per mass | Energy per volume | Practical point in this comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Methanol | 19.7 MJ/kg | 15.8 GJ/m³ | Liquid at ambient conditions; approximately 2.4 times MGO storage volume for comparable autonomy |
| Marine gas oil | 42.7 MJ/kg | 36.6 GJ/m³ | Reference oil fuel in the MTF comparison |
| Methane/LNG | 48 MJ/kg | 20.4 GJ/m³ | Higher volumetric energy than methanol in this table, but cryogenic storage is needed |
| Ammonia | 18.6 MJ/kg | 12.7 GJ/m³ | Lower volumetric energy than methanol in this comparison |
Energy-density figures are from the Maritime Technologies Forum’s 2026 ISM guidelines; the approximate storage-volume comparison is also from that source.
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The volume penalty is especially important on a dredger. Tank space competes with the hopper, structure, piping and equipment, while cofferdams and separation from the shell take up additional room. In the Willem van Oranje concept, the designers concluded that matching the original ship’s endurance was not feasible within the existing arrangement. Newbuilds can allocate space to methanol from the start; retrofits inherit the old hull’s constraints.
How does methanol get from the bunker connection to the cylinder?
The Wärtsilä 32 methanol system is a liquid-fuel chain with dedicated pumps, shutoff and purge arrangements. Methanol is not routed through an ordinary diesel manifold: the supply is segregated, monitored and designed to contain leaks and allow safe isolation.
- Bunkering connection: Methanol comes aboard as a liquid through a controlled bunkering station. The design provisions summarized from DNV rules include natural ventilation or gas-tight separation, containment beneath connections, visible tank-level and overfill status at the control position, and both manual and remote shutoff valves close to the connection. Lines are arranged to drain and be inerted or gas-freed; a self-sealing coupling is intended to close if disconnected.
- Dedicated storage: Fuel tanks are kept out of machinery spaces and accommodation. The cited rule summaries describe separation from the ship’s side, cofferdams around internal low-flashpoint fuel tanks in specified arrangements, leakage detection, and a means to fill the cofferdam with water if liquid is detected. Pressure/vacuum valves are placed on open deck. Under the summarized requirements, a ship relying on methanol as its only fuel needs two service tanks, each able to supply propulsion and vital generators for at least eight hours.
- Low-pressure transfer: Pumps move methanol from a service tank toward the engine supply equipment. Methanol does not need the kind of fuel heating associated with heavy fuel oil, though the fuel may need cooling before injection.
- Fuel valve train: Valve-train units between the low-pressure supply and high-pressure pump provide an emergency-shutdown and block-and-bleed barrier. If a fault or leak is detected, the fuel can be isolated rather than allowed to continue toward the engine.
- High-pressure pump and common rail: Each engine has a high-pressure methanol pump unit. It supplies the common rail and its accumulators, which help keep rail pressure steady as injectors open. The cited papers do not give the installation’s rail pressure in bar, so a numerical pressure should not be assumed.
- Twin injector: Each cylinder has separate injection paths: one for pilot oil fuel and one for methanol. The methanol path is controlled electronically. The diesel pilot ignites the charge; methanol supplies the main fuel energy in methanol mode.
- Purge and drain: Nitrogen and a drain or residue tank support safe isolation and maintenance. Before work opens a fuel line, methanol is pushed back toward a service or residue tank, and double-walled piping is purged and inerted. A summarized safeguard calls for an alarm if oxygen in the inert-gas supply exceeds 5 percent.
Wärtsilä calls its packaged fuel-supply equipment MethanolPac. Its announced scope includes low- and high-pressure supply components, the fuel valve train, bunkering stations, tank instrumentation, and control and safety functions. The package was announced in 2022 alongside the first newbuild installation of the Wärtsilä 32 methanol engine, with Boreas as its first reference. The announcement describes the MethanolPac system and its role alongside the engine.
How does the engine burn methanol?
The Wärtsilä 32M uses a diesel-cycle, compression-ignition arrangement. Methanol’s low cetane quality means it does not reliably self-ignite under the engine’s compression conditions, so the engine uses a pilot injection of diesel or another oil fuel to start combustion. The result is a dual-fuel engine, not a spark-ignited gas engine. Wärtsilä describes the 32M as capable of continuous operation on methanol, marine diesel fuel and heavy fuel oil, with the external high-pressure methanol supply required for methanol operation.
Starting and changeover are controlled sequences. The functional requirements summarized in the 2023 technical compilation say the low-flashpoint fuel must not be admitted until ignition is active and the engine reaches a minimum rotational speed. If ignition is not detected in the expected time, methanol supply is shut off and the start is terminated. A dual-fuel engine must be able to start, stop and run at low power safely, and continue on oil fuel if methanol is unavailable. Changeover is permitted only in a power range shown to be reliable; once its conditions are met, the changeover itself is automatic.
The available source material reports Wärtsilä 32 Methanol engine figures of a 320 mm bore, 400 mm stroke and 29 bar mean effective pressure, with 580 kW per cylinder at 750 rpm and configurations of 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 and 16 cylinders. These are figures reported by a secondary technical article, not a newly verified type test. They should not be confused with large two-stroke methanol engines used on merchant ships: the Wärtsilä 32 is the medium-speed four-stroke engine discussed for these construction vessels.
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On a dredger, the engine also has to respond to sharply changing loads. A 2025 CIMAC paper by IHC Holland, Boskalis, Van Oord and Wärtsilä studies the dynamic performance of the Wärtsilä 32 methanol engine against dredging load profiles, including whether energy storage is needed. Its authors identify dredging’s highly transient load profile as a strict integration challenge. The paper’s description and record concern engine integration and testing, not proof that a particular dredger has been converted.
What happens to a dredger’s range after conversion?
The clearest published illustration is the concept retrofit for Willem van Oranje, a 12,000 m³ trailing suction hopper dredger with two 6 MW Wärtsilä 12V32 engines. Its original bunker capacity was 1,585 tonnes of HFO/MDO including service tanks. The design team examined dredging and pumping ashore, dredging and dumping, and transit, and chose dual fuel so the ship could use low-sulphur marine gas oil where methanol was not available.
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That arrangement carries structural and operational consequences. The report estimated a lightship increase of about 250 tonnes and an average of about 115 tonnes of water ballast to compensate for the suction tube and gantries in the tank-fill cases examined. Methanol tanks beside the hopper need protective cofferdams, but the narrow space under the hopper is already occupied by cables, valves and hydraulics. More frequent bunkering during a project is the practical consequence of reduced endurance.
The same report gave an indicative conversion cost of approximately 20 percent of the price of a newbuild, covering engines, tanks, pipelines, nitrogen and a fuel-preparation room. It is an estimate for a concept, not a supplier quotation or a firm price for a construction-vessel retrofit. Its broader lesson is that a new ship can optimize its tank plan around methanol, while a conversion must work around a hull designed for a different fuel. The Green Maritime Methanol report also studied a concept for Van Oord’s cable-layer Nexus; those designs are not confirmation that either vessel was converted.
What safety systems does methanol need?
Methanol’s ambient-liquid handling is convenient compared with cryogenic fuel, but its toxicity, low flashpoint, corrosiveness and hard-to-see flame demand dedicated safeguards. The cited MTF guidance gives a flammable range in dry air of 6 to 36 percent for methanol, compared with 0.7 to 5 percent for MGO. Methanol vapour is heavier than air and can pool at low points, so detection and ventilation must account for lower elevations. Ordinary smell is not a reliable warning: MTF says vapour may not be detectable by smell below 5,900 ppm. Its flame is mostly invisible in daylight, so thermal imaging may be needed alongside conventional fire detection.
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Materials also matter. MTF describes methanol as a conductive polar solvent and warns that incompatible materials can suffer galvanic corrosion. Tanks and piping therefore need suitable materials, such as stainless steel or appropriately protected steel. Methanol’s low viscosity also requires attention to seals and injection hardware. These are reasons a dedicated fuel circuit and fuel-preparation space are part of the design, rather than an optional adaptation to a diesel line.
The international framework in the sources is the IGF Code, together with the Interim Guidelines for the Safety of Ships Using Methyl/Ethyl Alcohol as Fuel, MSC.1/Circ.1621, approved by IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee in 2020. Methanol is not treated in the sources as a numbered chapter of the original IGF Code. The core design principle is equivalence in safety, reliability and dependability to comparable conventional oil-fuelled machinery, supported by risk assessment, HAZID or FMECA at design and retrofit stages. Class rules translate these requirements into shipyard requirements: examples include Indian Register of Shipping’s Revision 4 guidelines, Bureau Veritas Rule Note NR670, and Polish Register of Shipping Publication 73/P.
That rule set is evolving. A report on IMO sub-committee CCC 12 says the sub-committee finalised a revision of the interim methanol and ethanol guidelines in September 2026, covering all sections and adding or expanding guidance on tank placement, leakage handling, ventilation, bunkering, firefighting and protective equipment. The available account does not establish that the revision has been adopted by the Maritime Safety Committee or say when it would take effect. It is therefore accurate to say the revision was finalised at sub-committee, not that it is already in force. For operating companies, MTF’s 2026 ISM guidance says methanol handling, changeover, training, toxicity, vapour, flammability and material compatibility belong in the vessel’s safety-management system.
Fuel rules should not be confused with bulk-cargo rules. Offshore support vessels may carry methanol as a chemical cargo, but a cargo guide’s inert-gas oxygen limit or cargo arrangements do not substitute for the rules governing methanol used as fuel. Fuel-system requirements should come from the applicable flag, class and low-flashpoint-fuel framework.
What do the carbon claims mean?
Any climate claim depends on the methanol pathway. The engine can burn fossil methanol, bio-methanol or e-methanol, but those fuels do not have the same lifecycle carbon result. Van Oord said in 2023 that running Boreas on methanol would reduce the vessel’s carbon footprint by more than 78 percent. That is the owner’s claim for the vessel, not an independently reported well-to-wake measurement in the available sources and not a result that fossil methanol automatically delivers. The same release describes e-methanol, made using hydrogen from renewable electricity and recaptured carbon, as the carbon-neutral option.
A separate reported Wärtsilä statement attributes a 92 percent CO2 reduction to the Wärtsilä 32 Methanol engine with green methanol, and a 50 percent reduction in NOx from the IMO Tier II level. It also says there is no SOx or particulate matter from methanol combustion. Those are attributed manufacturer statements, not measurements from Boreas; the available account does not supply the original statement date. The ship-specific evidence does say Boreas includes SCR for NOx control. Keep the green-fuel condition attached to the CO2 figure, and do not present either company’s percentage as an in-service result for the vessel.
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Van Oord said in 2023 that approximately 95 percent of its carbon footprint was linked to its fleet. That is company context for why it is pursuing lower-carbon fuels and energy efficiency, not a fleet-wide performance result for methanol. The wider market is also not a count of construction ships: MTF’s 2026 guidance says 66 methanol dual-fuel ships were ordered in 2025, with reports of up to 822 methanol-ready ships in the pipeline.
What is the practical takeaway for an operator?
Methanol can work in construction vessels because it is a pumpable liquid and can be burned in a dual-fuel diesel-cycle engine. The trade is not simply “cleaner fuel for the same ship”: the system needs segregated tanks and piping, high-pressure injection, pilot fuel, purge and detection systems, and procedures for a toxic liquid whose flame can be hard to see. The vessel may also need much more fuel-tank volume, which can cut endurance or force design trade-offs.
Boreas shows the newbuild approach: plan the methanol engines, tanks, SCR and battery as parts of one installation-vessel power system. The Willem van Oranje study shows the retrofit constraint: a careful concept still lost about half its autonomy because the old hull could not accommodate enough fuel volume. For dredgers in particular, transient loads need to be checked against engine response and energy-storage needs; for any ship, climate claims should name the fuel pathway and distinguish owner or manufacturer claims from measured operating data.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can methanol be bunkered from a truck or shore tank?
Historical ferry practice described in a 2023 technical compilation included truck delivery and a quay-side pump container. That example does not establish how an offshore installation vessel is bunkered; the actual transfer arrangement depends on the ship, port facilities, applicable rules and project location.
Can an existing Wärtsilä 32 engine be converted to methanol?
Wärtsilä said in 2022 that methanol injection could be retrofitted to any of the more than 5,000 conventionally fuelled Wärtsilä 32 engines then in operation. That is an engine-platform statement, not evidence that every ship conversion is technically or economically suitable; tank space, fuel-system layout, class approval and operating profile still matter.
Is methanol carried as offshore cargo handled under the same rules as methanol fuel?
No. Bulk chemical cargo has its own carriage and handling regime, while methanol used as fuel is governed by the applicable low-flashpoint-fuel requirements, including the IGF framework and interim alcohol-fuel guidelines cited here. Cargo-specific limits should not be copied into a fuel-system design.
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Not by itself. Lifecycle emissions depend on how the methanol was made: fossil methanol, bio-methanol and e-methanol are not interchangeable in a carbon claim. A ship’s combustion system can accept the fuel while the well-to-wake result remains pathway-dependent.
