Tag: alternative fuels

As part of IMO's strategy to reduce GHG emissions from ships, a meeting of the IMO Global Industry Alliance to Support Low Carbon Shipping (GIA) Task Force took place at IMO Headquarters in London, on 27 November, holding a lively debate on the marine fuel for the future.

Golden Ocean Group Limited, a dry bulk shipping company, is set to equip a number of its capesizes with scrubbers to limit its exposure to high rates of fuel costs concerning the impending 2020 sulphur cap. The scrubbers will be installed along with routine dry dockings, most of which are set for 2019 or early 2020.

Norwegian cruise ships operator, Hurtigruten, decided to retrofit its ships to make them more eco-friendly, and plans to use a byproduct from dead fish and other organic waste in order to power their engines. Liquified biogas is a fossil-free, renewable gas produced from dead fish and other organic waste, , while it is considered one of the most eco-friendly fuels available.

The Norwegian petroleum Directorate issued preliminary production figures for October 2018, revealing an average daily production of 1,874,000 barrels of oil, NGL and condensate, which is an increase of 271,000 barrels per day compared to September. Total gas sales were 10.6 billion Sm3 (GSm3), which is an increase of 1.6 GSM3 from the previous month.

Finnish technology group Wärtsilä announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) and Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), for the study of the development of a business case for the use of alternative fuels with Wärtsilä generating sets. The MoU was signed on 13 November.

Powering European ships with batteries, hydrogen or ammonia will decarbonise the fleet and require only half the amount of renewable electricity that less efficient solutions like synthetic methane or synthetic diesel will need, noted Transport & Environment in a new report revealing a Roadmap to Decarbonising European Shipping.

The Motorship Propulsion & Future Fuels 2018 conference was launched on November 14, focusing on fuels and propulsion technologies. The conference highlighted what needs to be done in order to meet the 2020 global sulphur cap goals, as well as IMO’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

ABS, OceanFinance and Scorpius Space Launch Company will collaborate on the SPACE TECH4SEA project to adapt technologies developed for the space industry to LNG shipping. The project aims to apply composite technology as an alternative in LNG as marine fuel designs.

Spanish LNG company HAM Group, in cooperation with the Port of Barcelona and Portuguese energy firm Galp opened the first LNG fueling station within the port, to reduce emissions from port activities. The facility has two compressed natural gas pumps for trucks and vehicles, two liquefied natural gas pumps for trucks and a cryogenic LNG tank of 60 cubic meters capacity.

ABB and SINTEF Ocean are conducting a research to test the viability of fuel cells as an energy source for main ship propulsion. The research aims to address challenges regarding fuel cell technology to power commercial and passenger ships. Hydrogen as fuel convert directly to electricity and heat without combustion.