VIDEO: ZEMBA moves to kick start deployment of e-fuels

The Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA), a shippers’ group whose members include major freight buyers such as Amazon, IKEA and Levi Strauss, is moving to accelerate the deployment of e-fuels in its next tender

Established in 2023, ZEMBA is an initiative of Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Vessels (coZEV) and facilitated by the Aspen Institute Energy & Environment Program.

Last year, its first tender was won by Hapag-Lloyd, with more than a dozen ZEMBA members, including founding members Amazon, Patagonia, and Tchibo, committing to purchase the environmental attributes associated with over 1 billion twenty-foot shipping container-miles of zero-emission shipping on a route from Singapore to Rotterdam, in 2025-2026.

ZEMBA’s next tender requiring e-fuels for primary propulsion is set to launch in January 2025. ZEMBA will aim to aggregate at least 80 billion tonne nautical miles of demand for the emissions abatement associated with e-fuel-powered container shipping for deployment starting in 2027. This would equate to 1.4 million twenty-foot containers transported across the Pacific Ocean by e-fuels, assuming a benchmark distance of Shanghai to Los Angeles.

Through this tender, ZEMBA seeks:

3–5-year contracts for e-fuel-powered container shipping starting in 2027
E-fuels bids that achieve at least 90% emission reduction for primary propulsion
Bids from individual ocean container carriers or consortiums, with ZEMBA being open to the possibility of multiple winners

“ZEMBA is making history by voluntarily catalyzing commercial e-fuel deployment through our next collective tender,” said Ingrid Irigoyen, president and CEO of ZEMBA. “Our members are demonstrating that freight buyers are willing to make multi-year advanced offtake commitments now to incentivize the creation of new markets for the most scalable solutions, which will be required for them to achieve their 2030 and 2040 climate goals. By creating economies of scale and targeting investment in the right long-term solutions, our members can also accelerate the pace and manage overall costs of this clean energy transition.”

Interested bidders are invited to contact ZEMBA at [email protected] to begin preparing for the Request for Proposal (RFP) process.