SHIP TECHNOLOGY

Shipping needs to take urgent action to achieve its environmental targets — and the internal combustion engine can help the industry achieve its decarbonisation mission, according to Marc Sima of

Fuelsave

Marc Sima Chief Executive, Fuelsave

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From the longer-term effects of climate change to the immediate shock and uncertainty of the global pandemic, shipping is firmly in the midst of a historic period. Environmental, Social and Governance and green financing pressures, along with government and private sector climate reduction ambitions, are pushing the maritime sector to make complex and costly decisions within increasing timeconstraints.

Time is not on our side. The International Maritme Organization’s target to reduce CO2 by 40% by 2030 is just around the corner. In addition, by 2050 – the equivalent of one ship’s lifecycle away – the sector must reach 70% CO2 emissions reductions.

The growing majority of the shipping industry accepts that action is needed now to reach these targets. But what can we do today to make an immediate impact, while charting a clear pathway for the adoption of zero-carbon future fuels?

In an ideal world, shipping’s decarbonisation dilemma could be resolved by waiting for the current fleet to reach the end of its life, before replacing it with a fleet of new highly efficient vessels.

However, with targets looming large on the horizon, we don’t have time to sit back and wait. Short term measures to address emissions reductions from the current fleet are essential.

In particular, we must turn our attention to the older, more polluting vessels. According to Elizabeth Lindstad, chief scientist at Sintef, 80% of emissions came from just 20% of the current fleet. We must prioritise tackling the emissions from these older vessels, as well as the remainder of the current fleet, or else risk irreversible damage to our climate.

The science is clear. A study by the University of Manchester highlights the potential benefits of using the existing fleet as a vehicle to achieve decarbonisation targets, as opposed to delaying until new more sustainable ships come online.

There is no silver bullet to tackling these emissions in the short-term. It will require a

combination of design, technical, and operational measures, as well as rapid innovation in alternative propulsion technologies plus the establishment of a worldwide bunker infrastructure for viable clean-fuel alternatives.

However, the sector cannot afford to ignore established solutions such as the internal combustion engine (ICE), which is currently shipping’s only viable engine. The ICE, when used in combination with clean drop-in fuel alternatives, can make significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions now. This is backed up by research from the Energy Transitions Commission, which strongly favours “drop-in” fuels that can be used in existing engines.

Clearly, the ICE will be an indispensable asset for the sector to reach its emissions targets, thanks to its flexibility to accommodate future fuels, its prevalence within shipping, and its ability to be enhanced further thanks to combustion conditioning – which can significantly influence and optimise the combustion process.

By achieving a leaner and cleaner combustion at higher thermal and volumetric efficiency of an engine at a lower combustion temperature, shipping can enjoy not only fuel savings, but significant reductions in nitrogen oxides (NOx) (GWP 289) by up to 80% and black carbon (GWP 3200) by up to 33% depending on the engine load, with solutions such as FS MARINE+, being compatible with other efficiency enhancement and emission reduction measures while providing flexibility to be used with current and future fuels coming throughout the clean-fuel transition.

There are many roadmaps available in the industry that suggest pathways towards the adoption of cleaner futurefuels for the shipping sector. However, these future fuels must be able to work effectively with the ICE.

Ammonia has emerged as a popular choice – it is a zero-carbon fuel and is more energy-dense than hydrogen. It can also be used in an internal combustion engine, including blends and pilot fuels such as hydrogen and diesel.

As opposed to waiting for an alternative form of propulsion to emerge, we have the technology at our disposal now that enables those future fuels, including ammonia and liquified synthetic methane, to enjoy further benefits in their combustion process.

The ICE will enable these futurefuels to become a success. We’re already seeing the sector develop ICEs equipped to handle the likes of ammonia with MAN and Wärtsilä both developing an ammonia-based ICE, aiming to be available for as early as 2024.

The combustion process can be further controlled and optimised thanks to advanced combustion conditioning enabling stable and robust combustion at high efficiency while controlling combustion temperatures and reducing NOx

emissions significantly.

However, a major barrier to the adoption of ammonia lies in its costs. In particular, according to a recent study by the Energy Transitions Commission, first movers would face green ammonia costs around five times the cost of heavy fuel oil, with a similar cost increase also applicable for green methanol. As a result, cost savings remains the primary objective for ship owners and operators.

Modern dual fuel engines allow shipowners to adapt and retrofit compatibility with these future fuels, thus saving on costs of replacing them with alternative propulsion. Additionally, advanced combustion conditioning is helping operators to reduce costs and address remaining performance deficits on the combustion and emissions side.

By being able to help ammonia to ignite better and combust with more stability in low and high loads, while at the same time addressing NOx emissions and reducing therefore associated capex and opex required to run the selective catalytic reduction, solutions like FS Marine+ for advanced combustion conditioning are delivering a unique value add, helping operators to save costs while optimising emissions and reducing maintenance due to a cleaner combustion with less soot and deposit and lower lube oil contamination, reducing the engine wear and tear with a high-waterbased retrofit technology that can be integrated effectively and with even lower capex in new-builds in the future.

Waiting is not an option and we must take action now. Therefore, shipping cannot afford to overlook its assets to achieve decarbonisation goals. The ICE, with its simplicity and capability, will be critical in enabling the sector to reach its short and long-term emissions targets.

As greener future-fuels become available at scale, the ICE – shipping’s only viable combustion unit – will come into its own. Thanks to its in-built flexibility, shipowners will not need to spend additional amounts overhauling their combustion process but can use the ICE now with minor modifications. SEADRILL CONTRACT

Fuelsave will deploy its advanced combustion conditioning technology to reduce primary fuel oil consumption and cut Co2 and GHG emissions in the offshore oil and gas sector for the first time, following the signature of a landmark contract with Seadrill, one of the world’s leading offshore drilling contractors.

Seadrill’s high-spec sixth generation West Saturn drillship will be fitted with Fuelsave’s solution FS Marine+, which optimises combustion through the dynamic injection of hydrogen, oxygen, water and methanol.

By making combustion more efficient, the award-winning system significantly reduces fuel consumption and harmful emissions, such as CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and black carbon. Emissions of CO2 are expected to be cut by 10-15%, and NOx by 3080%, in line with Seadrill’s commitment to reduce emissions and protect the environment.

Three FS MARINE+ units will be deployed on the drillship. There will be one in each engine room, with each unit connected to two engines. This will support a total of 6 HIMSEN 16H32 / 40V engines with 8,000 kW each, or 48,000 kW MCR in total. Each will be specially configured for the vessel’s operational load profile, in line with DP3 configuration. CODE RED FOR HUMANITY

In its recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a “code red for humanity” citing that impacts from human activity are exceeding the limits set in 2015 for temperature increases.

“Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades,” the report says.

In a world looking for solutions, the report recognised that “from a physical science perspective, limiting human-induced global warming to a specific level requires limiting cumulative CO2 emissions, reaching at least net zero CO2 emissions, along with strong reductions in other greenhouse gas emissions.”

“Our report shows that we need to be prepared for going into that level of warming in the coming decades. But we can avoid further levels of warming by acting on greenhouse gas emissions,” says report co-chair Valerie MassonDelmotte, a climate scientist at France’s Laboratory of Climate and Environment Sciences at the University of Paris-Saclay.

Calling for immediate action, the report states: “It is unequivocal that the increase of CO2, methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere over the industrial era is the result of human activities and that human influence is the principal driver of many changes observed across the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere.”

Propelled by this sense of urgency, Purify Fuel’s nanO2 family of combustion catalysts provide an immediate reduction in greenhouse gases, the company says.

“With the world’s focus on developing immediate fossil fuel alternatives, we cannot lose sight of the reality that the majority of industries are still dependent on heavy duty diesel fuel applications and searching for ways to reduce emissions,” says John Carroll, chief executive of Purify Fuel.

WÄRTSILÄ: EXHAUST GAS ABATEMENT TECHNOLOGY AN AID TO MARITIME’S DECARBONISATION

With rapidly growing pressure from regulators, consumers, charterers, and investors – many shipowners are now facing the overwhelming need of having to meet sustainability targets whilst effectively reducing emissions from their fleets in a short space of time.

There have already been positive steps on the road to curtailing emissions from shipping operations, for example the Global Sulphur Cap, which enabled the industry to collectively innovate new ideas to ensure both baseline compliance and encourage proactive environmental performance.

When it comes to sustainability as a whole, regulation is only going to go one way. However, it’s also clear that there isn’t a clear-cut solution to enable sustainable progress; be it on carbon, SOx, NOx or Particulate Matter (PM).

Moreover, it’s vital that the industry champions flexible technologies enabling shipping to adapt for the future as more stringent environmental rules are likely to arise in the near term. Exhaust gas treatment systems are one of these potential future technology platforms, which continue to be innovated beyond tackling just sulphur, to also support a whole host of our sector’s broader sustainability goals.

Scrubbers are already the go-to Sulphur Cap compliance option for world-renowned owners and operators. The fuel spread continues on a steady incline – this is resulting in a growing interest in scrubbers from shipowners and operators who recognise the economic benefits of installing a system and the fact that there is no time like now.

Furthermore, open loop scrubbers continue to be revered following an independent ecotoxicity study1 in accordance with IMO GESAMP guidelines, which found that the technology running in an open configuration does not generate unwarranted environmental risk.

Together, our industry continues to develop and build a great understanding of the flexibility and power of scrubbers, which is why now is the perfect time to develop them further, in a modular manner, in order tackle other pollutants. By adding other abatement technologies around the stack, using the experience of sulphur cap compliance to tackle other current and future emissions challenges – this approach can be achieved.

Modularity cuts the risk of technology investments in what is going to be a very uncertain time for the maritime sector.

Adapting scrubbers as a platform for modular technology advancement will give shipowners the flexibility of choosing certain technologies now, while keeping their options constantly open to incorporate more abatement technology in the future.

Wärtsilä test facility in Moss, Norway

As the industry moves beyond sulphur, scrubbers should therefore be viewed as a springboard for environmental innovation, with the potential to reduce other emissions that are also on the horizon. This includes the capacity to reduce NOx with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and exploring filtering and capture – either in scrubbers or with add-on equipment – to remove particulates and black carbon.

Meanwhile, and perhaps most intriguingly, is the potential to use expertise gained from installing and engineering scrubbers, to integrate carbon capture and storage within the stack.

This development is worth pursuing due to the significant reductions in a relatively short timeframe it can be capable of. It also comes at a time when the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee recently debated ways to cut carbon from ships, all in line with the ambition of the IMO’s Initial Greenhouse Gas Strategy. Whatever regulation comes, shipping needs to solve the fundamental challenge of carbon, and to re-enforce this view, it’s vital that maritime explores technologies that will allow it to continue to operate sustainably and that may be able capture the industry’s carbon at the point of exhaust.

Wärtsilä is aiming to have a carbon capture demonstration unit installed by the end of 2021, which will help us to understand how to test and scale the technology on a ship.

At the same time, it’s also important that the industry understands that technology development and investment should take place with the future in mind. Essentially, a true lifecycle solution for a vessel must be futureproofed against changes that will inevitably be implemented over two or more decades. Having a global lifecycle service that is already available on the market enables shipowners and operators with the technology and innovation needed to achieve the industry’s goals today and tomorrow.

The flexibility and assurance of adding further technologies, dependent on compliance or operational requirements, will therefore be essential for the industry as we look ahead to 2030 and 2050.

A vessel being constructed by 2025 will be at end of its life by the time it’s 2050 and the IMO’s reduction target for that year. Opting for a truly futureproofed and assured technology option is therefore critical, not only to ensure owners and operators meet impending regulation but also to pave the way for wider decarbonisation progress.

Beyond just being a solution for sulphur, EGCS solutions are perfectly placed to help the industry’s wider transition, they provide a base for future technology adoption. As a collective, it’s time we realise the endless options and flexibility that this irreplaceable technology can contribute towards the industry’s journey to decarbonisation and sustainable operations.

For more information, visit: wartsila.com/marine/build/exhausttreatment