The Week in Alternative Fuels
Now that we are halfway into COP27, what’s the score?
PHOTO: A blueprint of the 2,000-dwt methanol tanker to be built. OljOla
The US and Norway started the first of two COP27 weeks by presenting us with “more than 40 announcements under the Green Shipping Challenge” at a major headline-grabbing event.
The only problem was that many of these announcements had already been made in the past year, either fully or partially. Several green shipping corridors spanning ports in Australia, Singapore, the US, Canada, Chile, Belgium and Sweden had previously been announced and reported by the shipping and energy media.
There has been a lot of aspirations and good intent signalled at COP27, but very little in the way of actual tangible and binding commitments. Many announcements were light on detail and noncommittal to deadlines and types of alternative fuels, vessels and infrastructure targeted.
The UK said shipping lanes between British ports and US, Dutch and Norwegian ports will be decarbonised “end-to-end”, but it did not say by when and how it will be done.
Norway was among the few that actually quantified the scale of the challenge in aligning its shipping fleet with an interim emission reduction target, which it has set to 55% by 2030. To get there it has calculated that over a thousand vessels need to be converted or built to have low- or zero carbon emissions.
French wind transport firm Transoceanic Wind Transport (TOWT) was also heavier on detail than most of the 40-odd announcers on the Green Shipping Challenge list when it proclaimed that 200 cargo sail ships will be built and crew trained to sail them by 2035.
In other alternative fuels news, a group of Swedish bunker and marine tech firms are building a methanol bunker tanker to supply in northern Europe. OljOla, Stena Oil and Stena Teknik said the 2,000-dwt tanker will also deliver biofuels in the region.
On the supply side, Wastefuel is teaming up with Dubai-based Averda to develop waste-to-methanol plant in Jebel Ali. And Nature Energy is building a biogas plant in the Danish port of Frederikshavn, targeting production of 20,000 mt/year initially, and 120,000 mt/year eventually.
Here is our selection of five top alternative fuels stories from this week:
Swedish trio aims to provide methanol bunkering with new tanker order
A Swedish joint venture of maritime companies has agreed to build a new 2,000 dwt tanker to offer methanol bunkering in the North European region.
The joint venture comprises Swedish bunker operator OljOla, fuel supplier Stena Oil and maritime technology provider Stena Teknik.
The vessel will be used to carry and supply methanol and biofuels to vessels in the North European region.
The tanker will be designed by Turkish ship designers Kuzey and built by Tuzla-based Genka Shipbuilding.
The new order has been placed at an opportune time as demand for methanol-fuelled ships are growing steadily, with shipowners working towards their decarbonisation goals.
Shipping classification society DNV’s principal consultant Martin Christian Wold said recently that orders for methanol-fuelled vessels has outnumbered LNG-powered vessels for the first-time last month.
A total of eight LNG-powered vessels were added to the orderbook in October compared to 18 methanol-fuelled vessels.
The push came from shipping giants A.P. Moller - Maersk, COSCO Shipping Lines and OOCL, which together ordered 18 large containerships in the month, as they pursue emission reduction goals.
WasteFuel to develop renewable methanol plant in the Middle East
US-based biofuel producer WasteFuel has partnered with Dubai-based waste management company Averda to develop a commercial scale municipal waste to renewable methanol plant in the Middle East.
The duo is considering setting up the plant in Jebel Ali, a key port in the UAE. It will use unrecyclable municipal waste collected by Averda to produce methanol. They announced the joint project yesterday during the COP27 Climate Conference.
WasteFuel says that production of renewable methanol for shipping “is crucial in global efforts to decarbonize.”
It claims that renewable methanol will help shipping companies cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 90% compared to conventional fossil fuels.
In September this year, WasteFuel announced its intention to produce 100 mt/day of green methanol using different types of municipal waste such as gas from landfill and anaerobic digestion.
The company sees potential future demand for the green fuel as several major shipping firms, including Maersk, COSCO, CMA CGM, Proman and Stena Line have committed to fuel some of their vessels with methanol.
Classification society DNV’s data shows that the number of methanol-fuelled vessels currently in operation or on order for delivery (25) will more than triple over the next few years. A total of 84 methanol-fuelled vessels are registered as in operation or on order towards 2028.
Nature Energy to target future shipping demand with liquified biogas plant
Danish biogas firm Nature Energy aims to initially produce 20,000 mt/year of liquified biogas (LBG) by the Port of Frederikshavn in Denmark.
Nature Energy says LBG produced at the plant will be supplied to vessels docked at the Port of Frederikshavn. It argues that the strategic location of the port could spur uptake of LBG from vessels en route to the Baltic Sea.
The plant will be built by Nature Energy along with Danish engineering firm Makeen Energy. They have set an ambitious target of supplying LBG stems to vessels at Frederikshavn from next year.
Nature Energy claims that the plant's production capacity can be expanded sixfold to 120,000 mt/year of LBG.
LBG is typically produced from biofeedstocks such as biodegradable waste from homes, industry and municipal sewage waste. These sources would have emitted carbon dioxide when they were broken down naturally. So when the carbon dioxide is instead emitted during LBG combustion in a ship engine, this process has not emitted any additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and can count as carbon neutral.
COP27: US pushing for more green corridors to kickstart shipping decarbonisation
The US and South Korea announced plans at COP27 to explore the development of green corridors between major ports in both countries.
Several US and South Korean government ministries have launched a feasibility study to explore the potential of creating green corridors between major ports in both countries.
The feasibility study will be conducted by the Zero-Emission Shipping Mission and will be closely monitored by the South Korean Port of Busan and the US' Northwest Seaport Alliance, a shipping cargo partnership between the US ports of Tacoma and Seattle.
The US Department of State announced a similar green corridor exploration initiative with the UK.
At COP27, the US said it has allocated $703 million to 41 projects that will improve port facilities. Some of these projects were previously announced, but have now moved from the drawing board and closer to becoming reality.
Apart from this, the US Department of State highlighted that it has launched a $3 billion rebate and grant program to fund the development of zero-emission port equipment and technologies.
At a DNV conference last week, the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation’s (GCMD) chief executive Lynn Loo said that for green corridor shipping to succeed, governments should need to devise mutual consensus policies and incentives to spur uptake of green fuels between ports.
COP27: Norway needs over 1,000 low- and zero-emission vessels to meet GHG goal
The Norwegian Shipowners' Association says Norway needs 700 low-emission and 400 zero-emission ships by 2030 to hit its greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target.
Norway has set a target of reducing its GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990-levels. The target was revised slightly upwards from 50% in the lead-up to COP27.
The Norwegian Shipowners' Association argues that several hundred low- and zero-emission ships can be built or retrofitted in time, and supported by new bunkering infrastructure and green fuels production.
It has pledged to support development of zero-emission vessels and port infrastructure along the country's coast. But it has also called on the governments of Norway and other countries to partner with maritime firms, and to put up funding for technological research and development to help realise the pledges made under the US and Norway-led Green Shipping Challenge.
Several Norwegian companies are working to develop new technologies to help reduce emissions from shipping.
Classification society ABS has recently issued a "new technology qualification" to Norwegian hydrogen supplier Rotoboost’s concept of an onboard pre-combustion carbon capture system. The system can remove carbon dioxide from fossil fuels before combustion is completed.
Last week, Norwegian shipowner Amon Maritime announced it will build and operate a fleet of ammonia-powered offshore platform supply vessels (PSV).
Also, Yara Clean Ammonia is testing a new way of producing the green ammonia through a technology being developed by fellow Norwegian tech company Hystar.
And TECO 2030 is building Norway’s first large-scale hydrogen fuel cell factory in the northern Norwegian city of Narvik, and is on schedule for production to start up in the fourth quarter next year.
