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Earlier this year, the World Bank released a report that rejected LNG as a marine fuel. Today, Dutch ship design and engineering specialist Conoship joined those who reject this view, saying LNG has a bright future in decarbonizing the maritime industry.
According to Conoship, the World Bank report appears to have missed an important recent technical development: marine carbon capture systems. Recently, great progress has been made in capturing CO2 from the exhaust gases of LNG-fueled ships.
Among other things, R&D in the Netherlands – by Conoship, TNO Delft and other partners – leads to feasible and practical naval solutions, using the cold of LNG (-160 dgr. C) to liquefy the CO2 and store it in ordinary liquid – CO2 tank containers on board. The captured CO2 can be unloaded during LNG bunkering, for example to be stored at sea in empty gas fields, for which infrastructures are being developed in Norway (Northern Lights), Rotterdam (Porthos), Amsterdam (Athos ) and by actors like CarbonCollectors.
As the captured and liquefied CO2 can be of food grade, wider use is expected in the future as an important and valuable raw material for the production of synthetic fuels, such as synthetic kerosene, diesel, methanol or fuel. methane. Besides green hydrogen, the production of synthetic fuels requires large amounts of CO2, of which the direct capture of the air is a very inefficient source.
The same vessels which are currently fueled with LNG (= approx. 85% CH4 methane), can in future be fueled with liquefied synthetic methane (LSM, 100% CH4), using the same existing LNG infrastructure. A closed carbon loop can be achieved by capturing the CO2 after the LSM burns in the vessel, liquefying it and supplying it as a feedstock to the liquefied synthetic methane producer.
Conoship’s R&D and design studies show that with the future application of CO2 capture, liquefaction and storage on board, LNG-powered ships can be both:
a good direct economic and ecological alternative to diesel-powered ships, achieving large reductions in SOx, NOx and PM / Sooth and smaller reductions in CO2; a good economic and ecological solution of the future, increasing the reduction of CO2 emissions (possibly in stages) to the desired economic and ecological level by the application of a CO2 capture installation.
Conoship says that by incorporating the CO2 capture facility into the initial design of the vessel, it reduces the future impact of the modification. However, CCS facilities are also suitable for retrofits aboard LNG-fueled ships.
In addition, R&D on managing the methane slip challenge is progressing well, both in combustion technology in engines and in aftertreatment technology and there is no reason why the application of the solutions should be. limited to a fraction of the park. In addition, despite all the developments, the quantity of green hydrogen, either to be used directly as fuel or as a raw material for e-fuels, will remain limited. It would make sense to use this scarce amount for applications for which there are no alternatives, such as long-range aviation.
Conoship believes that the introduction, through the IMO, of a CO2 tax per tonne of CO2 emitted will facilitate the economical application of CO2 capture facilities on LNG-powered ships over the years. to come up. Overall, LNG, when combined with CCS, should therefore still be considered a more than valuable transitional fuel until 2050, reducing the carbon footprint of shipping and its customers by over 75 % compared to current diesel operations.
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