SEA-LNG PUTS ITS CASE

Pro-LNG lobby group sets out why it sees LNG as the obvious pathway to decarbonisation

SEA-LNG published an overview of LNG as a marine fuel in 2022-2023. The report, A View from the Bridge' 2022-2023 | LNG Delivering Decarbonisation highlights how it sees the shipping industry as having advanced along the LNG pathway to decarbonisation in 2022 and outlines what progress is anticipated in 2023.

The report says: “2022 was another very strong year for LNG vessel orders, with numbers almost equalling those in 2021, the record year to date, despite exceptionally high LNG prices. The majority of these will have low slip engines with the potential to cut GHG emissions by up to 23% on a well-to-wake basis, as well as eliminate local emissions in the air we breathe. LNG is the only scalable fuel available today for deepsea shipping that addresses both climate and health challenges.”

According to SEA-LNG, shipowners are investing in the global LNG-fuelled fleet with the confidence that LNG infrastructure is already established in key bunkering locations and growing rapidly around the world. It says that there is growing recognition that decarbonisation will not be a 'big bang' process where the industry moves in a single step from fossil to zero-emission, renewable fuels. It suggests that the process is likely to take place incrementally as fuels are gradually decarbonised through the addition of low and zero-emission drop-ins and supplied at scale using existing infrastructure.

The report continues: “The industry is making massive investments in new builds and energy supply infrastructure that will impact GHG emissions today and for the next 25-30 years, the typical lifetime of a deep-sea vessel. Therefore, it is essential that assessments of alternative marine fuel pathways are made on a like-for-like, or 'apples with apples' basis using accurate data.

It says while regulators and industry are agreed on the net-zero emissions destination, the implications of the pathway are rarely discussed. The total pathway emissions associated with many of the alternative fuels being discussed may be much higher than those associated with LNG and its bio and synthetic variants.

The report's key argument is: “Being able to transition safely and easily from fossil LNG to bio-LNG, to renewable synthetic e-LNG means that LNG assets will not become stranded and that vessels ordered today will be able to continue operating within increasingly stringent GHG emissions regulations up to and beyond 2050.”

SEA-LNG Chairman Peter Keller asserts: “Shipping stakeholders are investing in LNG because it provides a low risk, incremental pathway for decarbonisation, starting now.”

Predicting how decarbonisation will evolve, the report says: “Bio-LNG, produced from sustainable biomass resources, is commercially available today and production is growing; it is among the cheapest of the alternative fuels being discussed. The availability of renewable synthetic e-LNG will depend on the build out of renewable electricity, as is the case for other electrofuels such as e-methanol and e-ammonia and it is likely to be competitive on price”

Onboard hydrogen production from LNG Technology group Wärtsilä and Hycamite TCD Technologies, a privately-owned Finnish company specialising in the development of a pioneering technology for producing clean hydrogen and solid carbon from methane, are to work together to enable cost-effective production of hydrogen from LNG onboard marine vessels. It is intended that the concept design will be ready by mid-2023, and the prototype testing unit ready during the second half of 2024.

The concept will allow the existing LNG supply infrastructure to be utilised and enable production of hydrogen onboard in combination with Wärtsilä's LNGPac Fuel Gas Supply System. By producing hydrogen onboard and blending it with LNG, the current range of fuel flexible Wärtsilä dualfuel (DF) engines can reduce the vessel’s overall CO2 emissions and methane slip. Alternatively, the hydrogen can also be used in fuel cells onboard.

The by-product from the process is solid carbon that, unlike conventional technologies which produce CO2 as a by-product, can more easily be stored and managed onboard. The carbon produced consists of high-grade allotropes, like industrial graphite and carbon nanotubes, thereby offering a possible additional revenue stream.

“We are investing in the development of viable future marine fuel technologies and solutions that can accelerate the efforts to decarbonise shipping operations. This collaboration with Hycamite is an important step forward towards meeting our corporate targets. Our gas engines can already operate with mixtures of hydrogen and LNG. The ability to produce the H2 onboard opens up exciting new opportunities. This solution overcomes the lack of an existing hydrogen supply infrastructure. It also supports reducing the safety risks around storing and handling of liquid hydrogen and enables a gradual decrease of the vessels’ environmental impact,” says Mathias Jansson, Director, Fuel Gas Supply Systems, Wärtsilä.

Bio-LNG factory

Attero, Nordsol, and Titan are jointly building a bio-LNG plant at Attero's waste processor facility at Wilp, the Netherlands. The FirstBio2Shipping project is set to deliver the first bio-LNG in early 2024.

The plant will process domestic biowaste into 6 million Nm3 of biogas per year. Nordsol and Attero will jointly produce 2,400 tonnes per year of high-purity bio-LNG (or liquefied biomethane) and 5,000 tonnes per year of liquid bio-CO2 from this biogas, using Nordsol’s patented iLNG technology. Titan, as exclusive long-term off-taker, will supply the bio-LNG to the maritime industry where it is expected to cost-effectively substitute fossil fuels.