The initiative is part of the larger decarbonization approach of the Swiss-Italian shipping line that has already seen the company pioneer the use of biofuels as a blended marine fuel, and MSC said on Tuesday that it joined the Hydrogen Council, an industry body, to help drive R&D related to hydrogen-derived fuels and solutions.

“MSC is actively engaging with a wide range of stakeholders to accelerate the development of clean hydrogen fuels for shipping. The future of shipping and decarbonization will rely on strong partnerships from both the perspective of technology collaboration and procuremen," said Bud Darr, Executive Vice President, MSC Group.

The Hydrogen Council is a CEO-led global partnership that brings together hydrogen companies with a united vision and long-term commitment to support the transition to renewable energy.

Increasingly, shipping companies are turning to cleaner-burning fuels and other technologies to minimize pollution to meet the goal of the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) to halve the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the industry from 2008 levels by 2050.

MSC is actively researching and evaluating a variety of alternative fuels and technologies and is also actively bunkering on-scale biofuels.

Maritime Business World