HANSA 02-2024

SCHIFFFAHRT | SHIPPING
However, Goh added: »In terms of availability and costs and who
is going to pay for the premium, I believe it can be sorted out.«
Biofuels can also be difficult to authenticate if these contain
fatty acids, said marine fuel testing specialist Veritas Petroleum
Services’ president (strategic partnerships), Captain Rahul
Choudhuri. Veritas, which was spun off from classification society
Det Norske Veritas, is working with the Global Centre for
Maritime Decarbonisation to better authenticate biofuels.
Choudhuri said: »Biofuel feedstock comes from a variety of
sources including edible vegetable oils, animal fat, waste, and
components; but how do you figure out
what the feedstock really was?«
He asserted that the bunkering supply
chain is prone to fraud, and biofuels,
when delivered through several parties,
could be inconsistent when stemmed to
the receiving ships. Choudhuri continued:
»The proof of sustainability will
become really tricky going ahead. However,
trials have proven biofuels possess
fatty acid chains that produce a unique
profiling. If you think your feedstock
should be palm-based and the fingerprint
shows clearly that it is not – then that’s it –
because the fingerprint just doesn‘t fail irrespective
of which country the biofuel
comes from.«
Goh, is however, optimistic that the issues
surrounding biofuels can be resolved:
»There’re a few industrial standards (for
biofuels) in place but whether one is accepted
in another location, and vice versa,
that remains to be seen. It’s a little bit fragmented
at the moment but I’m sure, collectively, within the industry,
that’s the obvious route that is seen. Biofuels are the option
for existing ships and I’m sure we can achieve something together
if we move towards that.«
Richard Ho, deputy general manager (fuel) at ONE, which is
also piloting biofuels, said that ship operators do not just choose
fuel types on a whim, and then make the purchase.
Ho said: »We engage our partners on the ship owners’ side to
know what they want. We work with our labs to learn what are
the new requirements. What can we do if the fuel fails? It’s not
just about buying the fuel. The complexity increases multiple
folds. We work with regulatory bodies to ensure we move things
forward and be ahead of the game. It’s the whole ecosystem that
helps us to be successful.«
»People aren‘t going to start
making methanol if people
don‘t build the ships.
It‘s a bit of a gamble«
Alex Hartnoll from X-Press Feeders
200,000 t a year or 50,000 t a year, everybody gets an equal seat at
the table. If you’re a smaller operator, you just don’t have access to
that kind of information and you won’t be offered a contract even
if you wanted to have one.«
Operators have to think long-term
Ho said that supply considerations mean that ship operators have
to think long-term when buying alternative fuels. Previously,
ONE’s legacy owners, Mitsui OSK Lines, NYK Line and ‘K’ Line,
purchased conventional fuels three to six
months ahead. The move from a single fuel
to a multi-fuel world has changed that. Ho
said: »We’re looking at a multi-year horizon
to make sure we can procure a certain
level of alternative fuels, whether it’s ammonia
or methanol.«
Meanwhile, liquefied natural gas (LNG)
is still favoured as a transition fuel, said
Shell’s global network development and
strategy manager, Khoo Hwee Lan. She asserted
that the oil major’s involvement in
© Lee
shipping is multi-fold, being a fuel supplier
as well as an operator of oil tankers and
LNG carriers.
»We believe that biodiesel and renewable
fuel will be the way to go. LNG is the
lowest-carbon, lowest-cost fuel that is
available at scale out there, so we start with
that in the first instance. The LNG production
capacity is around 450 mill. t today,
and the receiving capacity is over 1 billion
tonnes. So there’s a lot of LNG out there
that’s available for shipping to decarbonise«, she said.
Khoo alluded to the International Chamber of Shipping’s recent
estimate that by the mid-2030s, 800,000 seafarers would
need to be trained to handle ammonia, hydrogen and methanol.
She said: »LNG is a fuel that has been used for the last 50, 60 years
so it has an excellent track record.« Shell has delivered LNG as
bunker fuel to customers on the largest container vessels to tugboats
so we’ve done more than 300 ship-to-ship operations. That
also shows it’s not difficult to train up the crew.
Joining a bunker alliance?
To address concerns about expensive alternative fuels, ship
owners and operators should consider joining a bunker alliance,
such as the one headed by BW Group’s products tanker arm Hafnia,
which now procures marine fuels for 20 third-party
members.
Hafnia’s general manager (bunker) Kasper Sorensen, said the
company purchases bunkers for 1,300 ships now. He asserted that
such group buying can help smaller operators with substantially
less fuel requirements than big players. Sorensen added: »To get a
seat at the table, you need to have some sort of critical mass. For
us, whether you buy a million tonnes a year, whether you buy
© Port of Rotterdam
Ellen« delivers green methanol in the port of Rotterdam
or the first time to a Maersk newbuilding
HANSA – International Maritime Journal 02 | 2024
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