Page 51 - Industrial Plants

ear after year, the climate emergency In making more complex the worldwide fleet conversion,
raises an alarm even louder and louder. we have to highlight that the Shipbuilding construction
It is clear that it is not the problem of yards have already three years order book, so that
others, but we must all, personally, strive before 2027 no action can be made. Only 13 years are
to make in our private life our left for taking effective actions which can be effective in
Ycontribution, even a small one, to the 2040, highlighting consequently the pressing urgency of
survival of our planet: even the ocean is made up of the measures to be taken.
drops.
But the greatest contribution to pushing the reversal of “Climate emergency requires urgent
this dangerous trend must come from all sectors of actions to act energy transition in
industry, especially those that generate the greatest every sector: International guidelines
impact. and targets for Maritime industry are

The global shipping industry, which realize the transport well defined by IMO and EU Council
of the 90% of goods around the world, is responsible of
only the 3 % of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions With the scope to share some detailed information, we
around the world, but nevertheless it is increasing its should note conventional fuel vessels will be ordered at
efforts to develop alternative fuels in order to decrease least until 2030 ( later it is unlikely, since depreciation will
its environmental impact, especially in terms of GHG be too heavy on an economic life shorter than 20 years
release into the atmosphere. ) and the current newbuild order book ( GT – ABS
To this end, IMO, the special agency of the United source ) is now 49% conventional while 51% is dual fuel,
Nations, has adopted a series of mandatory international with dual fuel mix ratio at 68% Liquefied Natural gas
measures to improve the energy efficiency of ships, (LNG), and 32% Methanol.
through the definition of a mandatory regulatory The fact LNG is the prevailing new standard for big
framework for designers and builders, as part of the vessels (passengers/containers) is given by pricing and
decarbonisation strategy to reduce GHG emissions into availability of LNG, which has been developed with
the atmosphere through successive steps. several “small scale initiatives” in the last decade.
In parallel, EU Council has adopted new regulation, the LNG market remains relatively immature and will take
so-called “FuelEU Maritime” initiative, to decarbonise the more traction in maritime since:
maritime sector through the development and usage of • It burns more cleanly that any other fossil fuel;
more renewable and low-carbon fuels, reducing its • The newly introduced network of small size gas
carbon footprint. carriers is now/will be in the condition of efficiently
The main objective of the “FuelEU Maritime” initiative, as refuel the current LNG fleet/new ships coming
a key part of the EU’s Fit for 55 package, is to increase within 2030 currently ordered.
the demand for consistent use of renewable and low-
carbon fuels to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions But we cannot forget that, even if LNG is a “cleaner” fuel
from the shipping sector. than Diesel Oil, it is still a fossil fuel, with no negligible
Both initiatives have set up a series of successive steps impact in terms of GHG emissions.
in terms of reducing GHG emissions for 2030 and 2050, On the other hand, a new fuel for the sector, Methanol,
to play a fundamental role in the achievement of and more precisely E-Methanol has been generating a
necessary climate targets. lot of interest in recent months and is actually considered
as the green fuel which will play a fundamental role in the
Maritime Sector decarbonization.
A new fuel for the maritime Even if the impact of actual production costs of
industry E-Methanol is still high as normally it happens for
innovative solutions, the great evolution in the production
For the Maritime industry the main targets can be technologies of this fuel, and the EU Emissions Trading
resumed as follows: System (EU ETS) based on ‘cap and trade’ system to
• Acceleration to net zero; reduce greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively, will
• Availability and scalability of alternative fuels; soon allow this e-fuel to play a leader role in the Shipping
• New generation of ships powered by alternative Industry in few years, as demonstrated by the increasing
fuels. number of new ships orders, new plants for E-Methanol
production and new Methanol ready engines and kits to
In respect to the first point, it must be clarified that the retrofit existing ships in Europe and in the whole world.
net zero target is really not year 2050, but 2040, where Considering Italy, it must be said there is no precise
90% of the GHG emission reduction has to be common strategy in place for “methanol value chain”
accomplished. (Figure 1), which starts from:

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