Under the steaming midday sun, a vessel with a large, lime-green circle emblazoned on its side docks near the site of the United Nations climate conference (COP28).
The colorful ship is the FFI Green Pioneer, the product of an 18-month engineering project by Australian metal, energy and green-tech company Fortescue to convert ship engines to run on a mix of green ammonia and diesel. Green ammonia is produced in a process that emits no carbon dioxide, typically powered by renewable energy.
Andrew Forrest, founder and chairman of Fortescue Metals Group, said that if his company can manufacture these dual-fuel engines, so can the rest of the global maritime industry.
“The shipping industry has always pleaded, ‘We are the most difficult industry in the world to transition.’ And all I’m saying now is come up, look at the Green Pioneer. To say you can’t copy that — it’s not too hard to abate, it’s you’re too lazy to abate,” Forrest told Nikkei Asia in a telephone interview, referring to reducing emissions.
Responsible for around 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the shipping industry has been slow to voice its decarbonization plans. Only this summer did the industry collectively set a new, but vague, target for net-zero emissions “close to” 2050.
Critics called this aim weak, with the International Council on Clean Transportation think tank calculating that the shipping industry will breach emission levels needed to keep the global temperature rise to within 1.5 degree C.
Asia is home to many ship owners, the biggest shipbuilders and the busiest ports in the world. How the region’s maritime industry decarbonizes matters vitally, and so businesses, ports and authorities were keen to showcase their environmental credentials at COP28.
Japanese shipbuilder Mitsui O.S.K. Lines exhibited models of its hard sail “Wind Challenger” — a next-generation sail that harnesses wind power to propel large vessels — which it says will reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5%-8% per trip.
The company plans to have 25 vessels with such sails by 2030, and 80 by 2035.
“We are ramping up production with the shipyard,” said Ryo Sakamoto, coordinator for the global strategy team in the corporate marketing division.
Another innovation, “The Wind Hunter,” will use wind and underwater turbines as a power source to produce green hydrogen from seawater while sailing. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines plans to begin construction of a small-scale pilot vessel next year, aiming to build the final operational model by around 2030.
Ports and cities are focusing on creating green shipping corridors, routes where public and private stakeholders establish special economic zones to test and measure new technologies and fuels to work toward zero-emission shipping. More than 40 proposed routes are in the pipeline worldwide, the Global Maritime Forum nonprofit group reports.
Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub, or refueling hub, has inked agreements with Australia, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California as well as Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
“What we want to do is hopefully to play a catalytic role, and we look forward to working with many other countries and industry to deploy solutions,” said Teo Eng Dih, CEO of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. “There will be a lot of opportunities for the provision of green fuel, which is required.
“Green methanol production and supply may be limited initially, but it is an option that countries and companies are looking at, and we also welcome that,” he added.
To bolster the energy shift, Singapore this year hosted the first-ever transfer of methanol at sea instead of refueling at a port.
The U.N. agency for regulating shipping, the International Maritime Organization, takes a “technology neutral” approach, where it sets emission reduction targets but does not specify the type of fuel or technologies to reach those goals. This is spurring an innovation race from green ammonia to green methanol and green hydrogen, as well as energy-efficiency measures.
“Many alternatives such as hydrogen, ammonia and methanol require considerable amounts of energy just to produce them, presenting a challenge for overall emissions,” said Tom Pickerell, global director for nonprofit research outfit World Resources Institute’s Ocean Program.
Last year, South Korea and the U.S. agreed to create a green shipping corridor between the ports of Busan and Tacoma, in the state of Washington.
South Korea’s Deputy Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Song Myeong-dal told Nikkei Asia that the country plans to conduct a “full-scale feasibility study” toward building at least one green shipping corridor as early as 2028. Discussions also are taking place with Australia and Singapore on establishing new routes.
It is vital for the South Korean industry, one of the world’s biggest shipbuilders by tonnage, to be at the forefront of such technologies. The government said last year it would invest 250 billion won ($189 million) in research and development for low- and zero-carbon ships.
But in a sign of how tricky it will be to establish a global framework and develop solutions for the industry, Fortescue’s FFI Green Pioneer, despite its ammonia capability, had to sail to Dubai from Singapore on diesel fuel due to regulations against ammonia-fueled ships.
Source: Nikkei Asia