Cummins Confidential : Methanol Bollocks – All Gas, No Action

By /

Cummins, the diesel dinosaur parading as a climate saviour, is back waving the green flag with its methanol dual-fuel spiel. They’d have you believe they’re steering the shipping industry into a clean future. Reality check: it’s all rhetoric and “approvals in principle” while the planet chokes on exhaust. Where are the engines actually cutting emissions on the water? Nowhere.

The Dual-Fuel Dodge: Readiness My Arse

Eddie Brown, Cummins’ marine bigwig, boasts that methanol dual-fuel “makes sense” for their QSK60. They’ve just landed a shiny DNV approval in principle. Sounds impressive? Bollocks. An AIP is nothing more than a design nod – it means a drawing got stamped, not that a single ship is running it. It’s the classic Cummins move: talk up “bridges to carbon neutrality” while clinging to the diesel cash-cow.

They name-drop “fuel-agnostic platforms” and hydrogen experience, but in marine? It’s all pilot wank, no hard commitments. Meanwhile, competitors like Wärtsilä and MAN are actually testing methanol retrofits and methanol-ready prototypes on tankers. Cummins? Still at the doodle stage.

Accelera’s Empty Tank: Bleeding Cash

Enter Accelera – Cummins’ so-called clean-energy star child. In 2024, the unit booked $414m in sales. But look under the hood: after reorganisation and impairment charges, the segment racked up a $764m operating loss, including a $312m “strategic reorganisation” hit. Translation: they burned three-quarters of a billion dollars in a year, subsidised by diesel profits. Accelera isn’t a bridge; it’s a pothole swallowing cash.

For comparison, Cummins overall pulled in $34.1bn in revenue and $3.9bn in net income the same year. The message? Clean tech is still a loss-leader, diesel keeps the lights on.

Green Methanol Mirage: Scarce and Pricey

Even Brown admits the truth: grey methanol is cheap but filthy, green methanol is scarce and costly. OCI is doubling capacity in the US to ~400,000 tonnes a year, but that’s peanuts compared to what global shipping needs. In 2023, total green methanol output was just ~536,000 tonnes worldwide. With numbers like that, of course newbuild orders are diverting back to LNG. Cummins isn’t leading here – they’re sitting on the sidelines, waiting for fuel to magically appear.

And where’s the lobbying, the bunkering partnerships, the real push? Nowhere. Just “measured steps” and “pilots” – code for stalling until regulators force their hand.

Enough Spin – Where’s the Reckoning?

Cummins brags the methanol journey “has to start.” Started? It’s barely moved a metre. DNV nods and PowerPoint pilots aren’t climate leadership; they’re camouflage for protecting diesel.

Meanwhile, rivals are running pilots, regulators like the EU are tightening screws, and Maersk is already sailing methanol-fuelled ships. Cummins, you’re still drawing blueprints and cashing in on dirty engines.

Investors, customers, regulators – smell the spin. Demand actual results, not press releases. Because right now? It’s all gas, no action.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

Sources

Scroll to Top