Risks involved in new types of fuel for ships

Abstract

The IMO's policy for reducing GHG emissions sets the shipping industry to address and meet the emission reduction targets in the coming years. The decarbonization of maritime transportation has apparently been not an easy pathway to attain ‘zero carbon’ fuel at this stage. Henceforth, various research and projects are currently underway to figure out the most suitable alternate fuel, by considering all the aspects including, cost, scalability, availability, safety, performance, etc. The goal of this research is to gain a better understanding and with a broader perspective of solving the issues in safety, risks, operability, and availability of the different alternate marine fuels. Considered alternative fuels in this study include ammonia, methanol, LNG, hydrogen, and hybrid/battery options. Through an extensive literature review, technical and operational aspects such as its availability, infrastructure, emission, fuel consumption, economic feasibility, and storage capacity were investigated. Furthermore, the research drives through to get an overview of how the operation of these new marine fuels will contribute to less emissions in the future. The safety aspects of the alternative marine fuels were examined by the HIRA (Hazard Identification and Risk Analysis) model by identifying the potential hazards during operation and handling. These results were compared with the existing fuel Marine Diesel Oil, to analyse its feasibility. At the moment, most of the proposed alternative fuel types are not readily used in the market but a promising fuel has a large potential to take over the market in the future to meet the emission goal. To offer a remedy, the existing technology and propulsion systems should either be altered for the new fuel types, or it should be retrofitted with the present systems for sustainable operation. The research outcome will suggest the best feasible alternative marine fuel to meet the regulations of the maritime industry