Accelleron sees the Asia-Pacific region as a key market for the development of e-fuel networks. Despite delays in global net-zero regulations, the first structures for green hydrogen and e-fuels are emerging there.
Accelleron, a company specializing in turbocharging, fuel injection and digital solutions, has published its second report in the “Accelerating to Net Zero” series. The report highlights that the Asia-Pacific market plays a crucial role as a proving ground for much-needed e-fuel networks.
“The ships are ready. The Net Zero technology is ready. Only the fuels are missing,” says Daniel Bischofberger, CEO of Accelleron, on the occasion of the publication of the report in Shanghai.
According to Bischofberger, Accelleron’s customers are preparing their ships to run on e-ammonia and e-methanol, and there is broad agreement that green, hydrogen-based e-fuels will be essential to achieving net zero. Even if the global Net Zero framework is delayed, progress is visible.
The company wrote the report to provide clarity on these developments and support the industry with robust insights. Developments in the Asia-Pacific region show that the infrastructure for green hydrogen and e-fuels is taking shape – in a way that Accelleron says “could serve as a model for other regions”.
Asia-Pacific region as a role model?
With its economic scale and a policy environment that favors early progress on green hydrogen and e-fuels, the Asia-Pacific region has established itself as an advanced testing ground for these systems, according to Accelleron.
The report’s key findings show that while the recent shift in the IMO’s Net Zero framework is creating uncertainty in the industry, the drive towards decarbonization in the region continues unabated.
A key reason for this momentum is that the region sees green hydrogen and e-fuels not only as a pillar of decarbonization, but also of long-term, cross-sector energy security. Moreover, Asia Pacific has some of the world’s most extensive renewable energy and industrial resources that can drive the production of green hydrogen and e-fuels.
Several countries are already developing “book and claim” schemes to bridge initial gaps in e-fuel distribution infrastructure, while smaller, modular production models are emerging to enable a gradual scale-up and directly accelerate early supply. Targeted government incentives on the production side further support this development by reducing costs along the e-fuel value chain.
According to the report, these framework conditions create a “strong cross-sectoral foundation” for e-fuel production – combined with a natural supply and demand balance that is unique in the world. The region is actively demonstrating how the critical elements of a future e-fuel system can work together across sector boundaries by linking ports, industry clusters and bunkering infrastructure.
Despite this progress, Accelleron says maritime demand for e-fuels is currently not high enough to drive the scale of production needed to decarbonize the sector. In its report, Accelleron identifies blockages that need to be overcome to accelerate the lack of demand, as well as key lessons that the global market can learn from developments in the Asia-Pacific region.
The five challenges that need to be overcome according to Accelleron:
- Viable ecosystems do not need a global regulatory trigger. The region shows that national governments and industry can establish early cross-sector programs that link port development, hydrogen and e-fuel production clusters, industrial off-takers and maritime demand.
- Harmonization between countries: National energy agencies and port authorities can accelerate progress by harmonizing strategies, certification, storage, handling and bunkering for hydrogen and e-fuels regionally.
- Utilization of existing trade routes: High-traffic corridors such as the Australia-Singapore-China route can serve as a backbone for the early adoption of e-fuels.
- Think small to grow big: Modular production concepts allow for gradual expansion and lower initial purchase commitments.
- Create demand: While production incentives exist, Asia-Pacific almost completely lacks demand incentives and carbon pricing instruments for shipping.
According to Allan-Qingzhou Wang, Chairman of Accelleron China, the first report in the series has already shown the central role of hydrogen-based e-fuels in the maritime energy transition. The new report now shows how this transition is taking shape in practice. “Different approaches to the early development of e-fuels are emerging across the Asia-Pacific region, demonstrating how such networks can grow in practice – and lay the foundations for later scaling,” says Wang. The new edition of the report can be downloaded here.
You can also hear more on this topic in the 69th episode of the HANSA.news cast:
#69 Accelleron CEO Daniel Bischofberger on Turbochargers, Flexibility and the Fuel Bottleneck
