VIABLE SOLUTIONS

In its report A View from the Bridge, SEA-LNG has provided its own view of how liquefied natural gas (LNG) has developed during the past year and, notably, the role the producer has played in the progress towards decarbonisation in the past year.

According to the company: “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 growing, multisector order book and continuing buildout of infrastructure reflect the recognition from shipowners and fuel suppliers that LNG delivers immediate and important local air-quality benefits and greenhhouse gas (GHG) compliance today and offers a low-risk, incremental pathway to decarbonisation.

“The shipping industry is making newbuild investment decisions now that will impact GHG emissions today and for the next 25-30 years, the typical lifetime of a deep-sea vessel. While regulators and industry are agreed on the net-zero

Coming up with the best alternative fuel for the maritime industry is no easy task. While there are many options out there, availability and the necessary background infrastructure continue to be issues 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.”

According to the company: “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. In 2023, the commercial availability of bio-LNG will continue to scale up. As one of the cheapest of the alternative fuels under discussion, bio-LNG offers an immediate next step on the LNG pathway to decarbonisation and allows owners to transition safely and easily from fossil LNG – meaning vessels ordered today will be able to continue operating within increasingly stringent GHG emissions regulations up to and beyond 2050.”

A View from the Bridge includes additional statistics, quotes and infographics on the LNG orderbook, local emissions, bio-LNG cost and availability and much more.

Carbon Challenge

During a recent webinar, speakers from the LR Maritime Decarbonisation Hub and Safetytech Accelerator discussed their new report Tracing the true carbon intensity of sustainable marine fuels, which highlights how innovative technologies could be used for the end-to-end assurance of the green fuel supply chain.

With green fuels likely to cost more than their grey or blue equivalents (developed from non-renewable sources), it is vital that the fuels can be verified as coming from renewable sources and are not blended or mis-sold.

Opening the session, LR Maritime Decarbonisation Hub’s project manager Natassa Kouvertari said: “While shipping looks at alternative fuels, the lifecycle impact of these fuels must be taken into account, rather than pushing them upstream. This presents a challenge when verifying the carbon intensity of fuels for shipowners, for ports, for regulators and other stakeholders.”

Safetytech Accelerator’s commercial director Gabriele Dado explained that one of the aims of the collaboration was to seek technologies capable of tracing the overall chain and carbon footprint of hydrogen and ammonia.

“While being virtually identical from a chemical point of view, these fuels are not created equal. Based on their production method they all have a different carbon footprint. How can buyers of so-called green fuels be assured that the fuels were produced, transported and handled sustainably? We thought it was very important to look at fuel production – where does the energy come from to produce these fuels and how is that generated?” Dado noted.

“If we are using fossil fuels to produce hydrogen, is this going to have a much higher carbon intensity than hydrogen that is produced, for instance, through electricity derived from green sources only. So first and foremost, where does the energy used to produce the fuels come from?”

Dado added that before bunkering with hydrogen or ammonia, vessel owners and operators should ascertain whether the fuel has been blended or altered with non-green molecules of the same fuel.

After a thorough selection process, Australia’s TYMLEZ blockchain solution for overall fuel chain verification and UK-based Authentix, were chosen to collaborate on the report.

Speaking about TYMLEZ’s guarantee of origin (GO) solution in the webinar, the company’s head of research and innovation, Dr Mohsen Khorasany, said that the company’s blockchain platform monitors carbon intensity for sustainable fuels for different applications.

TYMLEZ’s platform is enabled by individual technologies and information validation and can follow any methodology, including the procedures of the International Partnership For Hydrogen And Fuel Cells In The Economy (IPHE) to calculate greenhouse gas emissions.

Dr Khorasany explained: “The data ingestion to the platform is done by way of a publicly verifiable signature. This signature is either produced at the source via custom device firmware that hashes the data as it leaves the device, or via a publicly verifiable, open-source code mechanism.”

This data forms a measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) package. These MRVs are then aggregated alongside the unit of measure (UoM), for example, one tonne of hydrogen or ammonia, to give the carbon footprint for that UoM. Once the UoM target is hit, a token is created that contains all of the signed MRVs for that particular UoM. This token contains the full traceability of all the information that an auditor would require to validate the readings.

The second assurance provider, Authentix, uses synthetic markers that are injected into the fuel to detect blending, mislabelling, as well as the origin of the fuel.

Authentix’s vice president, Jim Seely, said that while blockchain technology contains critical data that can be shared among many stakeholders, it is still necessary to have a link between the physical and digital worlds. “One challenge is that fuels are fungible so while the production method is critical to reducing the carbon footprint of hydrogen and ammonia, if the final product is chemically identical or even similar, the engines don’t really care. So grey and green (fuels) can be mixed, with no real impact on the final use.

“With fuels, they’re typically not packaged. There’s mixing in onshore tanks, there’s mixing in the ship tanks, all that happens regularly. So how do we assure that the digital record, for instance, showing 25% green ammonia in a tank, is accurately represented by the fuel itself? Authentix focused on how we might identify the physical product and assure that it matches the digital signature even after blending.”

Authentix has developed a system for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is stored and transported in a way similar to ammonia. The company’s system involves injecting a chemical marker in the LPG as it is pumped into tanks, agitating the tank filling to provide homogeneous mixing. The LPG can be sampled and tested with an analyser containing a specially designed high-pressure fuel cell, to identify and quantify the amount of marked LPG.

Safetytech Accelerator believes that technology will play a key role in decarbonisation, but that it has to go hand-in-hand with regulation, said Dado.

“It’s very important for regulation to become enforced to look at mandates and set a standard for the overall chain to say that the fuel we’re using must be green or blue. Otherwise, it’ll become purely a matter of price differential, with no incentive to verify whether we are burning a green fuel, a blue or a grey one.”

Dado’s opinion was echoed by Seely, who said that Authentix has experience with crafting legislation and regulation for fuel integrity in various countries.

He commented: “Regulations are best driven by full industry employment. As complex as green assurance is, it makes most sense to have industry stakeholders conduct control pilots to help mature the technology. And it’s critical to get industry buy-in as much as possible to better understand the impact of the regulations on processes and economics.”

Dr Khorasany however, thinks that private investment and collaboration between stakeholders will expedite technology and investment readiness for low-carbon fuel.

Schemes that reduce port fees for low-carbon users is an example of how industry can lead this without waiting for mandatory regulation, said Dr Khorasany.

“Programmes like these incentivise vessel owners and operators to invest in the procurement of green fuel. Besides, some consumers are willing to pay premium prices for green fuel to support environmental sustainability plans.”

Lng Power Barges

Design and engineering consultancy

Houlder is collaborating with Athensbased integrated energy solution provider Blue Sea Power to develop three innovative floating LNG-to-power barges (FSRPs).

The FSRP barges, which are set to be operational by 2025, will provide greener, lower emission baseload and peak power to the non-interconnected islands of Kos, Chios and Lesvos. This power will be used when existing renewable solar and wind energy utilisation is at its technical limits. The barges will replace the outdated and inefficient existing diesel and heavy fuel oil power generation infrastructure, whilst meeting the EU Taxonomy and new Greek Climate legislation.

In the current phase, Houlder will complete the barge designs to a level that will achieve approval in principle by class society Lloyd’s Register and will support Blue Sea Power with the design package for securing suitable tenders from shipyards.

In a previous phase, Houlder completed the key decision studies on the main power generation engine selection, a cargo containment system, design standardisation, greenhouse gas (GHG)reduction and efficiency options, and CAPEX, as well as an environmental study that looked at elements such as the impact on seawater temperature and noise pollution.

To adhere to ambitious EU greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions requirements, the barges must generate power efficiently. According to EU Taxonomy regulations on GHG emissions for new power plants in Greece, the limit is 270g of CO2 per e/ kWh or a 20-year average of 550kgCo2/ kWh. Houlder will therefore incorporate innovative, specialist solutions to meet and even exceed these standards.

Blue Sea Power barge solutions are RRF (Reconciliation Recovery Fund) eligible, where EU funding will cover a substantial part of the CAPEX for these additional GHG reduction measures. As the projects are ESG compliant, the team has also leveraged green funding effectively, which it has secured from multiple banks and investors to finance the project.

Although proven technologies are used, specific innovations will be included to improve efficiency. Technical solutions include maximising waste heat recovery from the exhaust and using waste heat recovery from the engine’s cooling water system for freshwater generation for export.

The barges will also maximise cold energy recovery from the LNG evaporation and use variable frequency drives to improve the efficiency of motors onboard.

The team expects to use a cryogenic carbon capture system onboard the power barges. The engines used will be hydrogen production blend ready to further improve sustainability as the technology to enable this matures and there will be scope to factor and blend bio-LNG and renewable synthetic e-LNG into the supply chain to further reduce GHG emissions.

Jonathan Strachan, Houlder’s ship design and engineering director, comments: “Floating LNG power barges are greener than traditional power generation infrastructure and, with novel integrated design and engineering developments, we can make energy production even more efficient and sustainable.”

Blue Sea Power partner Konstantinos Mitropoulos, says: “We have obtained electricity production licences from the regulator for Kos, Chios and Lesvos and we have developed a strong approach to provide all three islands with greener, lower-emission power.”

Mark Graham, Blue Sea Power director of projects, comments: “While the FSRP integrated power barge is a solution that may appear novel in its approach, the power barge utilises proven tried and tested equipment to reduce associated design and construction risks.

“The FSRP near-shore solution along with its modular design and shipyard construction also presents many repeatability benefit opportunities on CAPEX, OPEX and construction schedule savings.”

Looking ahead, there is also potential to develop many more barges and even scale up the projects to efficiently provide other Greek islands and EU locations with green energy.

Houlder has also recently completed a major design project for Shell on the development of a concept design for a 20,000m3 liquid hydrogen (LH2) carrier.

Houlder collaborated with Shell on the statement of requirements, ensuring that both parties were aligned on vessel specifications. The team then conducted a feasibility study for fuel and powering arrangements, and also undertook concept general arrangement, hull design and powering, and structural design work.

The concept design was verified and optimised using Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis. Houlder recently enhanced its hydrodynamics, computer simulation and technical data analysis capabilities through the acquisition of Seaspeed Marine Consulting.

In addition, Houlder recently completed related work for Shell on hydrogen containment systems and carried out a ship piping and instrumentation review for ships carrying hydrogen as a cargo or as a fuel.

Houlder’s Jonathan Strachan comments: “These are very cool projects, both literally and metaphorically, with liquid hydrogen clocking in at -253°C. It is always a privilege to design pioneering vessels that have the potential to drive the energy transition forwards. And it’s become part of Houlder’s DNA. We look forward to collaborating with Shell on future pioneering projects.”

Windy Business

Wind propulsion provider Norsepower Oy has recently signed a contract with Socatra, one of France’s leading shipowner and operators, for the retrofit installation of two Norsepower Rotor SailsTM on the Medium Range (MR) tanker Alcyone.

The 50’000dwt, 2022-built, French flag tanker – chartered by global energy company TotalEnergies – will be retrofitted with two 35m x 5m Norsepower Rotor Sails. The units will be delivered in December 2023 from Norsepower’s new production hub in China, with installation scheduled for the last quarter of 2023 or the first quarter of next year.

Recent calculations indicate that the average fuel and carbon emission reductions will be 8% for the ship as it transits between South Korea and French Polynesia, with the potential for further savings using voyage optimisation reaching up to 2,000 tons of CO2 per annum.

Taking a holistic approach to decarbonisation and combining clean technology solutions enables key progress towards emissions reduction goals, minimising fuel costs, enabling carbon regulatory compliance, and improving IMO Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) ratings.

Tuomas Riski, chief executive of Norsepower, comments: “The Norsepower Rotor Sail is particularly well suited to tankers, with a strong track record of proven performance. This is why we are confident that we can achieve at least 8% fuel consumption saving, based on existing data and projections, ensuring Socatra lead the way for more planetpositive operations for others in the oil industry.”

Laurent Bozzoni, Socatra chief executive adds: “As the oil industry is moving towards a low-carbon future, it is everyone’s responsibility to put forward tangible and economically viable solutions. We are pleased to be working with Norsepower to accelerate this transition and minimise our environmental footprint.

“The Norsepower Rotor Sail is widely recognised as a proven solution for sea-going vessels, and we believe that our MR tanker Alcyone will benefit from significant efficiency gains and help us reduce our CO2 emissions.”

Jérome Cousin, senior vice president Shipping at TotalEnergies adds: “The installation of two Norsepower Rotor Sails on Alcyone contributes to TotalEnergies’ net-zero ambition by providing an immediate reduction of the carbon footprint of our shipping activities. The success of this project could pave the way for a broader adoption of wind- assisted propulsion for TotalEnergies’ fleet.” sales@ecochlor.com

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