French operator CMA CGM’s converted container ship CMA CGM Iron departed Santos early Tuesday. The vessel is retrofitted to run on methanol, ethanol or conventional bunker fuel and will call at Sri Lanka and Singapore en route to China. Using Brazilian ethanol as marine fuel could create a sizeable new export outlet for Brazil’s biofuel sector and agriculture; Brazil—second only to the US in ethanol output—is expanding renewable-fuel capacity and increasingly using sugarcane and corn feedstocks.

French operator CMA CGM’s converted container ship CMA CGM Iron departed Santos early Tuesday. The vessel is retrofitted to run on methanol, ethanol or conventional bunker fuel and will call at Sri Lanka and Singapore en route to China. Using Brazilian ethanol as marine fuel could create a sizeable new export outlet for Brazil’s biofuel sector and agriculture; Brazil—second only to the US in ethanol output—is expanding renewable-fuel capacity and increasingly using sugarcane and corn feedstocks. Wider ethanol adoption in shipping could significantly reduce global shipping greenhouse-gas emissions.