The 2022 Propulsion & Future Fuels Conference opened on 22 November and brought together ship owners, ship operators and industry leaders to discuss the challenge of decarbonisation and strategies to meet regulatory targets.
Rasmus Stute, DNV’s Area Manager and Vice President, delivered an upbeat welcome speech , in which he presented the conference’s themes in microcosm, ranging freely from decarbonisation, digitalisation and alternative fuels uptake through to the need for a global level playing field.
The conference opened with a panel discussion, Ricardo Batista from DG Mobility and Transport in the European Commission provided an overview of the latest policy instruments, ranging from AFIR to FuelEU Maritime, and their expected impact on the market.
A high-level discussion about the implications of the upcoming introduction of onshore power supply (OPS) requirements across the EU’s Core TEN-T ports by 2030. The most striking element of the discussion was the degree of uncertainty surrounding future energy demand at individual port levels, which is likely to complicate planning, particularly as the need to develop stronger grid connections between national electricity grids and ports was identified as a key obstacle. In response to a question from VDR’s Martin Kroeger, Batista confirmed that the scheme could be expanded to other vessel types, such as tankers, in the future.
Wärtsilä’s Dr. Torsten Büssow opened his presentation with the provocative forecast that “in the future, all vessels will be hybrid”, and outlined the rapid advance seen in both hybrid-electric and hybrid-mechanical orders in recent years.
GTT’s Natalia Zubenko discussed GTT’s recently launched new condenser concept, Recycooler. While the solution has initially focused on vessels using LNG as a fuel, GTT is planning to roll-out a version targeting the LNG carrier market.
Accelleron’s Simone Bernasconi outlined the benefits that customers could obtain by overhauling turbochargers with new and upgraded components as a cost-effective means of reducing emissions for operational assets.
Gregory Puckett, Head of Group Digital, MAN Energy Solutions offered a rallying call for the importance of digitalisation – and asked for delegates to recognise how far the industry has come, identifying a surprising number of digital natives in the audience.
During the panel’s Q&A session, the panel turned to the issue of the development of introducing common ISO standards, with Lars Robert Pedersen noting that the IMO Standard Reference Model was open to additional contributions from interested shipowners.
