Proman Stena Bulk Ltd has this week finalized an agreement with Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) in China to build two state of the art IMOIIMeMAX methanol-ready 49,900 DWT vessels, with the first vessel due for delivery at the beginning of 2022. This represents the first deal signed by the newly-created joint venture between Swedish Stena Bulk and the Swiss-based Proman Shipping. Following extensive development and towing tank tests by GSI and Stena Bulk for their 2015 – 2018 series, the IMOIIMeMAX line of vessels are amongst the most energy efficient ...

With the rising awareness of ‘Green Shipping’ and the growing concern for the spreading of invasive species lodged on the vessels, there is an alternative to coating with toxins or metals. The labor and cost intensive cleanings procedures for sea chests, coolers, heat exchangers, freshwater generators, propellers and hulls can be replaced by new and improved technology. Not only will the technology improve the environmental impact of shipping, but it will also save fuel and enhance performance of the vessels. In Kiel, Germany HASYTEC Electronics GmbH have for the last ...

The main bunker fuel for ships is High Sulphur Fuel Oil (HSFO, with sulphur up to 3.5% m/m (mass by mass)). This will all change on 1 January 2020 when the IMO’s regulation to reduce the limit for sulphur content in fuel oil used in ships to 0.5% m/m comes into effect. The reduction to the sulphur content limit is predicted to lead to a massive drop in the consumption of HSFO, which in turn, we surmise will impact the price of piped natural gas in Asia and its competitiveness ...

Earlier in the year the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) in its 74th session adopted a comprehensive set of guidance and guidelines to support the consistent implementation of the 0.50% limit on sulphur in ships’ fuel oil, which comes into force from 1 January 2020, including the 2019 guidelines for consistent implementation of the 0.50% sulphur limit under MARPOL Annex VI (Resolution MEPC.320(74)) (the Guidelines). This article (the first in a series on the guidance issued by MEPC 74) considers some of the key elements of the Guidelines. The ...

The IMO, which met in London this week to discuss how the shipping industry can continue to decarbonise, has agreed that a goal-setting approach is the best way to reduce carbon emissions in the short-term. Full details of the approach will be resolved next year. States and NGO’s discussed the details and the complexities of the different submitted proposals and how they would cut emissions and impact states. After lengthy discussions it was clear that there was no appetite for prescriptive speed reduction regulation. The IMO concluded that a mandatory ...

The IMO Intersessional Working Group on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships has made significant progress in pushing forward with work to help achieve the ambitious targets set out in the initial IMO strategy on reduction of GHG emissions from ships, which aims, as a matter of urgency, to decarbonise international shipping in this century. IMO is committed to working to combat climate change, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 on climate action. National Action Plans – draft MEPC resolution agreed The working group agreed ...

With the world fiercely focused on a decarbonised future, fossil fuel movers and traders might rightly be reconsidering their future. But cast a wider bulk cargo net and there are still reasons to be cheerful about job prospects for the 2020s and beyond. Wind is one. An International Energy Agency (IEA) report on offshore wind power sees a 15-fold increase in global capacity with a cumulative investment of $1tr by 2040. Its Offshore Wind Outlook 2019 sees falling costs, supportive government policies and some “remarkable technological progress”, such as larger ...

The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Global Sulphur Cap 2020 regulations specify that every vessel must adhere to strict sulphur emissions limits by 1 January 2020. As this date looms closer, marine industry players are finalising their game plans on how to cope with the sulphur cap. Continuous engine operation on low-sulphur fuels is one viable option to comply with the sulphur-related emission regulations. Another is to install an exhaust gas cleaning system, known as a scrubber. A third opportunity involves moving from fuel oil engines to gas, such as LNG. ...

More of the world’s international shipping fleet will soon be able to power their engines using 100 per cent sustainable biofuel. Biomass technology group BTG will set up a new high-tech technology company that can convert crude pyrolysis oil into diesel fuel suitable for the shipping sector. It will be the first refinery in the world for an advanced marine biofuel based on pyrolysis oil. The new facility will be operated by a new company named BTG-neXt. In the first phase, BTG-neXt will focus on building a pilot refinery for ...

Wasaline’s parent company, NLC Ferry, was founded in 2012, with the municipality of Umeå in Sweden and the city of Vaasa in Finland as owners. The new company’s strategy was to strengthen the focus on passenger traffic between the two towns and to improve the cargo offering on the line. The team from NLC Ferry, together with Christer Schoug of BoCS Consulting and Ari Huttunen of Foreship, initiated a process that culminated in the signing of a newbuilding contract with Rauma Marine Constructions in January 2019. New thinking to match ...

“Meeting International Maritime Organization (IMO) targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shipping will take mandatory requirements for individual ships, and other policy measures to support the development and use of new fuels and technologies,” says Tore Longva, one of the lead authors of the Maritime Forecast to 2050, and Principal Consultant at DNV GL’s Regulatory Affairs section. “This is a clear message that resulted when we asked our model what would happen when selecting various regulatory pathways for reducing GHGs from shipping. The findings are timely as the ...

More people than ever are aware that the giant ships carrying 80% of global trade are also giant polluters. Green MEP Bas Eickhout argues that regulators face a choice between real and fake CO2 regulations for shipping at UN negotiations next week. Bas Eickhout is a Dutch MEP with the Greens/EFA group. He will lead the Parliament’s delegation to the COP25 summit in Madrid in December. Just 15 of the largest ships emit more health-damaging sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide air pollution than all the world’s cars, and the whole ...

On the eve of the latest round of UN ship climate negotiations at the International Maritime Organisation in London, a new report published by Seas at Risk and Transport & Environment has highlighted how slower ship speeds would massively reduce the damage shipping is causing to human health, nature and the climate. The large positive effect that reduced speeds can have on ship GHG emissions is well known. What has received less attention is the positive effect such a change in speeds would have on nature and human health. The ...

The oil market has recently been shaken up by geopolitical events, but volatility in the price difference between low and high sulphur fuel cannot be explained by that alone – the uncertainty is the chaos factor. The uncertainty of the upcoming IMO 2020 Sulphur cap regulation (IMO2020) is having a big impact on the bunker market. Whereas, the price for Marine Gas Oil Low Sulphur (MGO LS) has largely remained stable, the price for High Sulphur Fuel oil (HSFO) has been become increasingly more volatile in recent months. The HSFO-MGO ...

A containerized 600 kWh marine battery system will be installed in a trial on board the Maersk Cape Town in December 2019 to improve vessel performance and reliability while reducing CO2 emissions. “This trial will provide a greater understanding of energy storage that will support Maersk in moving towards further electrification of its fleet and port terminals. Maersk will continue to facilitate, test, and develop low-carbon solutions on our journey to become carbon neutral by 2050,” explains Søren Toft, Maersk COO. Propelling marine vessels with battery power alone is still ...