Weekly briefing from ship.energy

Team building…

It’s becoming increasingly clear that achieving progress on shipping’s decarbonisation will require large-scale collaboration – between companies and across industry sectors – and may see the forging of new as well as traditional partnerships to engage in some of the ‘out of the box’ thinking needed to come up with innovative solutions

A new project this week demonstrated this ‘team player’ approach, bringing together Odfjell, fuel cell technology specialist Prototech, Wärtsilä and Lundin Energy Norway on the development of a prototype fuel cell which will be tested at Norway’s Sustainable Energy catapult centre before installation on an Odfjell chemical tanker.

Of course, fuel cell projects are springing up across the world to provide an answer to shipping’s next-gen energy requirements, but the Norwegian project is interesting in that its focus is on developing a fuel cell will be able to use different bunker fuels – including LNG and green ammonia. This flexibility would potentially allow a shipowner’s fuel choices to evolve as and when new fuels hit commercial scale and availability.

At first sight, this would seem to overcome a silo approach to alternative fuel development – and would take the heat out of the fuel ‘competition’ that seems to be emerging in some areas of the maritime sector. It might also quicken the pace in the decarbonisation journey.

We also saw some more joined-up thinking this week over in the Netherlands, where the solar and wind energy produced at an industrial park near the City of Arnhem will be used for charging electric vehicles as well as powering vessels at berth in the city’s harbour.

And, in another example of teamwork – this time being applied to the challenge of meeting alternative fuel supply and demand – Gasunie and the port authorities of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Groningen and North Sea Port are exploring the feasibility of setting up a hydrogen exchange – along the lines of existing electricity and gas exchanges – which they believe could ‘act as a catalyst for a market for climate-neutral hydrogen’.

Getting the right fuel at the right price and at the right place – and in the right quantity. Have we heard this in the shipping and bunker sectors before?!

Energy News: Betting on biofuels

Indonesia is ramping up its biofuels production capacity – a move intended to reduce the country’s reliance on imported petroleum products, particularly low-sulphur fuels.

Technology News: Q&A: Leading the charge

‘In the future, every commercial vessel will have a battery room,’ says Sterling PBES CEO, Brent Perry.

Policy News: US select committee examines potential for hydrogen and ammonia in shipping

A select committee of Senators, Department of Energy officials and commercial representatives recently gathered in Washington DC to examine emerging offshore and marine energy technologies in the United States, including alternative fuels for maritime shipping.

Knowledge News: Accelerating the energy transition

Yara Marine’s Strategy Business Development Manager Thomas Gabestad talks about the company’s ambitions to expand into new green shipping technologies.

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