During the 2024 GREEN4SEA Athens Forum, Panos Zachariadis, Technical Director, Atlantic Bulk Carriers Management Ltd., focused on challenging the common perceptions and misconceptions surrounding the role of green hydrogen in decarbonizing the shipping industry.

The upcoming entry into force of the EU ETS and CII regulations, part of the ambitious EU environmental agenda aiming to reduce emissions from shipping, is expected to redefine the current landscape of communication between shipowners and charterers, argued Mr. Panos Zachariadis, Technical Director, Atlantic Bulk Carriers Management Ltd., during the 2022 GREEN4SEA Forum that took place in late April.

Mr. Zachariadis shares worthwile milestones in his career, highlighting that his decision to sail as engine crew (third engineer) in a bulk carrier and an oil tanker for a full year after obtaining his degree was a unique experience. This assisted him in communicating properly with seagoing personnel, having faith that his instructions to them were technically correct and doable.

At the last GREEN4SEA Conference, Mr. Panos Zachariadis, Technical Director, Atlantic Bulk Carriers Management Ltd, provides an overview of alternative fuels such as natural gas, methane and hydrogen. He presents the pros and cons of each fuel, but highlights that new technology is necessary to make IMO’s goals reality.

The GHG footprint of LNG is worse than this of the current conventional fuels, argues Mr. Panos Zachariadis, Technical Director of Atlantic Bulk Carriers Management. With this respect, LNG should be viewed only as a SOx and NOx compliant fuel and those that invest in it 'should proceed on these grounds', he notes.

Panos Zachariadis, Technical Director, Atlantic Bulk Carriers Management Ltd, explains why the industry is not ready to the Global Sulphur Cap and discusses possible scenarios until the implementation deadline.

Reading the recent article NGOs say new report shows need for action on shipping emissions, Mr. Panos Zachariadis, Naval Architect and Marine Engineer, MSE would like to highlight some issues regarding the IMO study and ''arbitrary misinformation'' of the public.

My presentation on emissions regulations may be a little controversial because I'll discuss about things that more and more people start to realize but so far nobody likes to speak about. The IMO makes environmental regulations by looking at one issue at a time and that sometimes results in regulations which have conflicting effects with other environmental issues. The pressure at IMO to do something fast is high and as a result, the regulation may come before technologies are ready or without enough scientific justification for the effectiveness of the regulation, such as the example of ballast water treatment or even by over simplifying the problem, like in my opinion is the example of EEDI and EEOI. This is not a 100% IMO's fault because Member States threaten to proceed with their own regulations if IMO doesn't do it. ECAs will come down to a limit of 0.1% sulfur from next year with an intention for a global ECA for fuel to be used to contain only 0.5% of sulfur from 2020. However, science tells us that reducing SOx warms the atmosphere i.e. SOx cools the atmosphere according to an article from a scientific magazine actually written by eminent scientists,...