Another day, another Maersk investment – or so it seems.
Maersk Growth, the corporate venture arm of A P Moller – Maersk (APM), yesterday announced an investment in Dutch startup Vertoro, which focuses on developing liquid lignin technology that can be used as a marine fuel.
“Maersk’s investment will be used to further develop and commercialise Vertoro’s patented liquid lignin technology, and it will enable Vertoro to build a demo plant, which will become operational in 2022,” said Peter Votkjaer Jorgensen, partner at Maersk Growth.
The output of the plant will be used to develop marine fuels in partnership with Maersk as well as other applications for the materials and chemicals markets.
“The minority investment supports APM’s work to decarbonise marine operations,” he added.
Maersk expects several fuel types to exist alongside each other in the future and has identified four potential fuel pathways to decarbonisation: biodiesel, alcohols, ammonia and lignin-enhanced alcohols.
Founded in 2017, Vertoro produces liquid lignin exclusively from sustainably sourced forestry and agricultural residues by means of a patented thermochemical process. Like fossil oil, liquid lignin can be used as a platform for fuel, chemical and material applications.
This investment, is Maersk’s third in less than two months.
September saw the addition of WasteFuel to its investment portfolio. The California-based startup focuses on turning waste into sustainable aviation fuel, green bio-methanol, and renewable natural gas.
This was followed by Prometheus Fuels, a Silicon Valley-based startup with a promising direct air capture-technology to enable cost-efficient, carbon neutral eFuels for shipping.
Maersk has set a 2050 deadline for its carbon-neutral objective.
