GL Spanish Committee: Focus on Potential of Alternative Energy in Shipping

Hamburg, 23 October 2008 – Worldwide efforts to limit CO2 emissions are beginning to have an impact. The dramatic price increase for fuel has started a bandwagon among shipowners to seek for energy saving potentials and ways to reduce emissions. Spanish shipowners invested 658m € last year, according to the latest studies by Spanish shipowner association Anave. This represented the largest annual investment by Spain’s shipowning community since 2004. That is why the key topic “Potentials of Alternative Energy in Shipping” was met with considerable interest by representatives of the Spanish shipping and ship building community at Germanischer Lloyd’s Spanish Committee.

Natural gas, which has a low carbon content compared to mineral oils, is becoming increasingly popular as a marine fuel. Until now the use of natural gas as a marine fuel in international shipping was forbidden by the IMO for safety reasons. According to SOLAS, only fuels with a flashpoint of over 60 °C may be used on vessels. The IMO’s sub-committee on Bulk Liquids and Gases (BLG) is currently working on provisional guidelines to meet present demands for safety standards in the use of natural gas as a marine fuel. The sub-committee is expected to submit these guidelines to the Marine Safety Committee (MSC) for approval in 2009.

Dr Hermann J. Klein, Germanischer Lloyd Member of the Executive Board, gave an outlook to the future potentials of fossil fuels. “It is planned that from 2010 there will be a legal basis for using natural gas as a marine fuel in combination with combustion engines in international shipping”, Dr Klein explained. “Compared to oil, natural gas has clear environmental advantages – high efficiency and good environmental properties.”

A study conducted by GL showed that a gas-powered vessel would not only reduce emissions but costs as well. Under certain conditions a container feeder with 1,500 TEU, 8,750 kW and a speed of 16 knots could actually be more economical than a conventional freighter. The result of their calculations was that after 15 years of operation the cumulative costs of a gas-powered propulsion system would be about one million US dollars lower than those of a conventional propulsion system. The general rule they established was that the higher oil prices rise and the higher the actual CO2 levy is, the greater will be the cost savings. GL is currently working out the operative details of this model in a pilot project.

“Together with several partners, GL has been and is working continuously on various projects to extend the benefits of environment-friendly technology”, said Dr Klein. Within the range of options to enhance ship efficiency, GL also offers its “GL FuelSaver” suite of new consultancy services allowing to identify practical fuel saving solutions. It includes the “CO2-Index Data Analysis” and the “Operational Fuel Consumption Analysis” which help shipowners and ship managers to understand fuel consumption patterns and to identify technical and operational measures to reduce fuel costs.

Germanischer Lloyd press release