Tag: alternative fuels

  DNV GL has released a position paper that presents a methodology for evaluating alternative fuels, adding sustainability and safety considerations. Trends in pricing are an obvious factor to consider when examining the feasibility of new fuels, but sustainability and safety also have an impact on the ultimate affordability of change. “The Fuel Trilemma: Next Generation of Marine Fuels” looks at the rapidly diversifying fuel market from the perspective of affordability, sustainability and safety. These three factors will govern the importance of any energy source chosen to meet regulatory requirements for CO2, SOx and NOx – requirements that are already pushing the limits of what can be achieved with conventional fuels and exhaust gas cleaning technology. A growing diversity of fuel options has seen LNG becoming well established and opened some potential for biofuels to gradually replace fossil fuels. Electricity from the grid, methanol and hydrogen have their place for certain geographic areas and ship types, too. “In all cases, the cost associated with machinery, as well as the expected fuel price, will play a dominant role for shipowners as they make changes to their fleet,” says Christos Chryssakis, Senior Researcher at DNV GL. “However, safety and sustainability have an impact ...

  John Kokarakis, VP Engineering, Bureau Veritas presentation during the 2015 GREEN4SEA Forum The tsunami of emission related regulations and the need for environmental friendliness also dictates the utilization of alternate fuels less polluting than HFO. The star player is LNG but  not the only player though. Future ships will burn a variety of fuels; hydrogen, synthetic fuels and biofuels will be chosen depending on the characteristic of the ship.   Nowadays, we are facing an utterly confusing and conflicting tsunami of fuel regulations. Fuel is the most expensive OPEX item and plays an important role in defining the future of the shipping industry. The drivers for new marine fuels are: regulations, financial considerations and available technology. In the future, there is going to be coexistence of multiple fuels. Be aware that the wrong fuel choice has major impact on commercial performance of the vessel. Pioneer owners may be confronted with unforeseen technical issues costing time and money. However shipping thrives through innovation and technology development. The fact that the charterer pays the fuel removes the motivation from the owners to use alternative fuels. Lack of bunkering facilities and supply chains are barriers for the introduction of new “exotic” fuels. Due to ...

  The U.S. Navy is to test a production of 100% renewable drop-in fuels on its ships and aircrafts, according to the fuels' developers. Applied Research Associates (ARA) and Blue Sun Advanced Fuels are performing on a Defense Logistics Agency Energy  contract that was awarded for production of 100% drop-in renewable jet and diesel fuel utilizing ARA’s and Chevron Lummus Global’s (CLG) Biofuels ISOCONVERSION technology. The first contract fuel deliveries were made in February of 2015; the remainder of the fuel will be delivered in 2015 and 2016 to support certification and testing of renewable fuels for U.S. Navy ships and aircraft. The contract calls for production of CHCD-76 and CHCJ-5. CHCD-76 is a catalytic hydrothermal conversion diesel fuel, developed as a variation of the commercial ReadiDiesel with the intention to meet the Navy’s F-76 Naval Marine Distillate Fuel spec and qualification protocols. CHCJ-5 denotes a catalytic hydrothermal conversion jet fuel, developed as a variation of the commercial ReadiJet with the intention to meet the Navy’s JP-5 jet fuel spec and qualification protocols. Blue Sun Advanced Fuels, a licensee of the Biofuels ISOCONVERSION technology, converts the renewable oils to crude oil in their 100 barrel-per-day (4,200 gallon-per-day) demonstration-scale Biofuels ISOCONVERSION ...

  The EU's TEN-T Programme will co-finance with nearly €500,000 a regional project supporting the use of alternative fuels, in particular liquefied natural gas (LNG), in the Seine river and the French Channel area. The project is expected to reduce environmental impact and cut down on fuel consumption in water transport. The project aims to introduce greener fuels in French regional water transport and pave the way to their wide deployment in line with the new EU requirements on the reduction of maritime transport emissions. This study will focus on the regulation, safety and installation aspects of the necessary infrastructure to support the deployment of alternative fuels. It will also transfer knowledge to about 75 stakeholders in eight ports through a specific training programme preparing the participants on the use of low emission fuels. The project was selected for EU funding with the assistance of external experts under the TEN-T Annual Call 2013, priority 'Decarbonisation / substitution or environmental cost reduction'. Its implementation will be monitored by INEA, the European Commission's Innovation and Networks Executive Agency. The project is to be completed by December 2015. Source: EuropaIn the onset, I was explicit with you propecia before and after has changed ...

  Stena Line has chosen to focus on the alternative fuel, methanol, and now the world's first methanol powered ferry, the Stena Germanica, has been launched, which operates on the route Kiel–Gothenburg. On 26 March, the Stena Germanica re-entered service after a couple of months' intermission. Now, as the world's first methanol powered ferry. Stena Line is thus the first shipping company to operate with environmentally friendly methanol as the main fuel. On Friday the 27ththere was an inauguration ceremony in Kiel and today, Monday the 30thof March there was a ceremony in Gothenburg "We are very enthusiastic about methanol's possibilities and it has the potential to be the maritime fuel of the future. We want to pursue change and development in the shipping sector and, with the Stena Germanica, our environmental impact will be completely different to what the industry has seen before," Carl-Johan Hagman says. Methanol is a biodegradable, environmentally friendly and cost efficient fuel that reduces the emissions of sulphur and particles by 99 percent. The ferry's fuel system and engines have been adapted in the shipyard in a collaboration between Stena Line and Wärtsilä. The technology is called dual fuel – methanol is the main fuel, ...

On 17 March, 2015 at MAN Diesel & Turbo’s Diesel Research Centre in Copenhagen, the company successfully demonstrated the ME-LGI concept in front of existing ME-LGI customers and partners, including Westfal-Larsen, Marinvest, Waterfront Shipping/Methanex, MES, HHI-EMD, MOL, and Minaminippon. For the purposes of the event, the company rebuilt its 50MX test engine to an ME-LGI unit. Vice President and Head of R&D, Søren H. Jensen, said: “Attendees showed great interest in the demonstration and the accompanying technical presentations; their feedback has been very positive.” He continued: “A number of years ago we identified the need to develop an engine that could run on more environmentally-friendly, competitively-priced fuels as an alternative to MDO/MGO. We believe the ability of the ME-LGI engine to run on sulphur-free fuels offers great potential. Methanol carriers have already operated at sea for many years. With a viable, convenient and economic fuel already on-board, exploiting a fraction of the cargo to power a vessel makes sense.” To date, MAN Diesel & Turbo has received orders for 7 × ME-LGI engines – a mixture of 7S50ME-LGI and 6G50ME-LGI variants – from Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Marinvest and Westfal-Larsen. The very first engine will be produced by Mitsui Engineering & ...

Meriaura Group is strengthening its position at shipping market by expanding its fleet, and has entered into a contract with Dutch shipyard Royal Bodewes for building two 4700DWT VG EcoCoaster general cargo vessels. The contract for two newbuildings was signed in Turku in December. The delivery of the first vessel is due at the end of July, 2016 and the second will follow three months later. VG EcoCoaster is designed to cause considerably less environmental impact than conventional dry cargo vessels. The hull and machinery of the newbuildings are optimized to the speed of 10,5 knots in open water conditions. Power required for Ice Class 1A is achieved by a diesel electric driven booster unit. The aim is to almost halve the fuel consumption compared to conventional dry cargo vessels of similar type and size, and therefore also cut emissions remarkably. The vessels will be equipped with a dual fuel system, main engine ABC 8DZC being suitable for biofuel and MGO. Biofuel for the vessels is produced in VG-Shipping’s (part of Meriaura group) own refinery located in Uusikaupunki. Meriaura is expanding and regenerating its fleet. In December the company reported of time chartering four more dry cargo vessels. The regeneration aims ...

Yet another milestone in the quest for alternative, more fuel-efficient sources of power will soon be marked with the conversion of the ropax vessel Stena Germanica to a dual-fuel methanol propulsion system at Poland's Remontowa shipyard. The 240-metre-long, 1,500-passenger ferry, which will be converted over a 45-day period from 28 January, 2015, will be the world's first ever methanol-powered sea vessel. Approval and classification will be by surveying teams from Lloyd's Register. Preliminary tests on a methanol-modified Wartsila engine 6ZAL40S similar to the Germanica's were overseen in Trieste by five LR teams from our Copenhagen, Trieste, Gotheburg, Venice and Southampton offices. LR's Trieste-based Lead Specialist, Roberto Costantino, said: "We carried out three days of tests on a modified engine at Wartsila's R&D laboratory so as to understand the engine performance when running with methanol. While the test engine is a similar type to the four engines on the vessel, it has fewer cylinders. So the builders are converting the existing ones on the ship." The new fuel arrangement on the Germanica, which is owned and operated by the Swedish ferry operator Stena Line, will combine methanol as its primary fuel with marine gas fuel (MGO) as a back-up power source. ...

The CMTS Maritime Energy Task Team (METT) was established in December 2013 as an interagency forum for exchanging information and offering opportunities for interagency collaboration to examine a number of promising fuel efficiency measures and technologies and to address the challenges of retrofitting and the availability of fuel infrastructure. The Task Team supports Federal efforts to address the issue of alternative ship fuels, including Liquified Natural Gas (LNG); to reduce the impact maritime transport has on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change; and to meet anticipated air pollution requirements on ships. The Task Team is co-led by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Maritime Administration (MARAD), and its membership is comprised of representatives from 13 CMTS member Departments and agencies: the DOE, MARAD, the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC), the US Coast Guard (USCG), the US Department of the Interior/Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (DOI/BOEM), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the US Department of State, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Navy, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).  (You can click on the image to view the ...