Where we build
Fuel is sold where ships stop. We build there.
A green methanol plant is worth most on the routes ships already sail, close to the rules that set its price and the cities that supply its waste. Three positions pass all three tests.
01 · The lane
One route, three positions. Each carries the next.
02 · The three tests
What makes a port right for the fuel.
- 1
On the lane
Fuel is sold where ships already stop. A plant off the main routes has to pay to bring the buyer to it.
- 2
Inside the rules
Europe’s fuel and carbon rules decide what green methanol is worth. The closer a plant sits to EU-bound trade, the more its fuel counts.
- 3
Waste in reach
The feedstock is a city’s waste. A plant near large cities and old landfills does not wait for the state to deliver it.
03 · Now
Sri Lanka. The lane between Asia and Europe.
- Hambantota International Port sits about 10 nautical miles off the main East–West shipping lane.
- Whether ships take Suez or go round the Cape, the route from East Asia to Europe passes south of Sri Lanka.
- Instability in the Middle East has sent global carriers to look again at Sri Lanka’s southern port.
Sources: Hambantota International Port Group, May 2026. Windward, “What is the Suez Canal”.
04 · Next
Mediterranean. Europe’s front door.
- Ships leaving Suez meet the Mediterranean’s EU ports first. The canal carries about 12% of global maritime trade.
- Since 1 May 2025 the whole Mediterranean is an emission control area, with a 0.10% sulphur cap. Methanol carries essentially no sulphur.
- Voyages between EU ports count in full under FuelEU and the EU carbon market. A plant here fuels ships on exactly those voyages.
Sources: Windward, “What is the Suez Canal”. IRClass Technical Circular 012/2025. Regulation (EU) 2023/1805.
05 · Then
Coastal U.S. The Atlantic side, and the most waste.
- U.S. landfills took 146 million tons of municipal waste in a single year, half of everything collected.
- Port Houston completed the first barge-to-ship methanol bunkering on the U.S. Gulf in 2023.
- Voyages from U.S. ports to EU ports count by half under Europe’s fuel and carbon rules.
Sources: U.S. EPA, 2018 fact sheet. gCaptain, April 2023. IIMS, January 2026.
06 · The network
One design, repeated port by port.
The first plant carries the design, the contracts and the lenders to the second. The numbers, the sites and the people behind them are in the briefing.