The Week in Alternative Fuels 22 December 2023
The penultimate week of 2023 highlighted both near-term solutions for reducing maritime emissions and long-term solutions towards a net-zero future.
Industry expert M?rsk Mc-Kinney M?ller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping (MMMCZCS) has calculated that shipping will undershoot the IMO's 20-30% reduction target by 3-13%. This is despite the industry meeting both IMO's green fuel uptake and carbon intensity targets. And that gap needs to be bridged by radically increasing zero-emission bunker fuel uptake and scaling up energy efficiency measures on board vessels, MMMCZCS argues.
Australian mining company Fortescue plans to help filling this gap by adding green ammonia to the industry's future zero-emission fuel mix.
It secured funding from the EU to build a green ammonia plant in Norway's Vestland county. Norway's surplus renewable energy can be used to produce green ammonia, a zero-emission fuel with potential to replace fossil fuels and support shipping's green transition, Fortescue’s Norway country manager Thor Magnus R. said. Fortescue has not disclosed the plant's production capacity.
However, it will take at least another couple of years before zero-emission fuels like green methane and green ammonia - and the technologies needed to use them - become widely available. In the meantime, shipping companies are turning towards transitional fuels like biofuels and LNG, and carbon reduction methods like onboard carbon capture and storage to reduce their emissions.
Brazilian oil and gas major Petrobras bunkered an intra-Brazilian vessel with a B24 biofuel blend at the Rio Grande Terminal in Brazil as part of its biofuel trials. The B24 blend was made up of 24% biodiesel derived from tallow, blended with 76% conventional marine fuel. Petrobras estimates that this B24 blend can reduce the vessel's well-to-wake greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 19% compared to running on conventional marine fuels.
Ship operator Crowley plans to test a carbon capture and storage system, developed by US-based Carbon Ridge , onboard one of its container ships. It will be installed on the ship next year and tested first in ports before being deployed at sea. Crowley estimates the system to capture around 1 mt/day of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the ship’s main engine.
Lastly, some maritime stakeholders envision nuclear-powered commercial shipping. London-based ship operator Zodiac Maritime plans to develop concepts for nuclear-powered commercial ships, including bulk carriers and container ships. It has partnered with classification society 劳氏船级社 (LR) and a South Korean consortium made up of HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd. (HD KSOE) and power plant designer KEPCO Engineering & Construction (KEPCO E&C) for the project.
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Nuclear energy provides “long-term low- or zero-carbon fuel supply security," Sung-Gu Park, president-Northeast Asia at LR noted. Despite its zero-emission potential, nuclear power is mired in safety concerns and will require strict safety standards and detailed regulations before it can become a viable option to propel commercial ships.
By Konica Bhatt