Linking shipping to governments' national plans to decarbonise economies is the way to get greener vessels, said a head of innovation at the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), ahead of the COP26 climate.
His comments at an International Chamber webinar conference came after Irena released a report last week on the pathway to decarbonise shipping by 2050. The agency forecast that renewable fuels could contribute at least 70% of the shipping sector’s energy mix by then.
Shipping would need 46m tonnes of green hydrogen production to create 183m tonnes a year of green ammonia fuel per year to hit the target, according to Irena's report. It would be part of a global energy requirement of 640m tonnes of green hydrogen by 2050.
"Linking the national plans with the shipping sector to enable the decarbonisation is very important," said Roland Roesch, deputy director of innovation and technology at Irena. The governmental organisation represents the energy planning of 196 countries.
Christopher Wiernicki, chief executive of classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), said a "multidimensional matrix" of fuels would emerge.
And Lois Zabrocky, chief executive of tanker group International Seaways, said this could "to an extent decommoditise shipping as we have to partner with our customers to move energy".
Zabrocky accepted the need for a global price on carbon but pointed out that running a duel fuel VLCC on LNG would currently cost $52,000 per day, compared with $24,000 burning 40 tonnes of very low sulphur fuel oil. Her company has ordered three dual-fuel VLCCs with energy major Shell.
Roesch said Irena foresees the shipping industry working with other energy intensive industries, such as the steel, chemical and trucking sectors, as well as governments to build the necessary green fuel supply infrastructures.
With renewable energy costs having fallen steadily over the last two decades, he said the agency predicts the price of wind and solar can drop by a further 40% in the next decade, and the capital cost of producing hydrogen will halve.
"Ammonia will come before hydrogen," said Wiernicki of the long-term energy mix, with LNG and methanol the current near-term contenders.
"But the challenge that the shipowner has right now is if you take a large containership and order it with conventional fuel, when you run down the CII projections and look at the different grades within ten years you will get yourself to a grade where you will have to make an adjustment and revisit that vessel."
Wiernicki said that the same ship built to run on LNG as a fuel would get another ten years.
"The ammonia-hydrogen problem is not a ship problem, it is a land problem and we are really going to have to get the benefits of infrastructure from governments," he added.
Wiernicki said that it was important that the COP26 talks in Glasgow in two weeks do not forget the maritime industries.
