Knowledge

Wind-assisted ship propulsion (WASP) technology seems to be a promising solution toward accelerating the shipping industry’s decarbonization efforts as it uses wind to replace part of the propulsive power generated from fossil fuels. This article discusses the status quo of the WASP technological growth within the maritime transport sector by means of a secondary data review analysis, presents the potential fuel-saving implications, and identifies key factors that shape the operational efficiency of the technology. The analysis reveals three key considerations. Firstly, despite the existing limited number of WASP installations, there is a promising trend of diffusion of the technology within the industry. Secondly, companies can achieve fuel savings, which vary depending on the technology installed. Thirdly, these bunker savings are influenced by environmental, on-board, and commercial factors, which presents both opportunities and challenges to decision makers.

I this video, Associate Professor Anders Ivarsson (DTU Mechanical Engineering) present the current status of their projects and experimental capabilities in the field of green marine fuels (lignin fuel, ammonia, and dimethyl ether) in their combustion engine laboratory.
The session was developed in collaboration with MARLOG.

International shipping is at a crossroads as regards decarbonization. The Paris climate change agreement in 2015 (COP21) was hailed by many as a most significant achievement. Others were less enthusiastic, and more recently American President Trump decided to take the U.S. out of the agreement. Four years earlier, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) had adopted the most sweeping piece of regulation pertaining to maritime greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction, in the name of the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI). In addition, one year after COP21, the IMO adopted a mandatory data collection system for fuel consumption of ships and agreed on an initial strategy and roadmap on the reduction of GHG emissions from ships. This paper takes a critical look at the above and other recent developments and focuses on the challenges faced by the industry if a path to significant CO2 reductions is to be successful. Difficulties and opportunities are identified, and the paper conjectures that the main obstacles are neither technical nor economic, but political.

Green Liner Shipping Network Design refers to the problems in green logistics related to the design of maritime services in liner shipping with a focus on reducing the environmental impact. This chapter discusses how to more efficiently plan the vessel services with the use of mathematical optimization models. A brief introduction to the main characteristics of Liner Shipping Network Design is given, as well as the different variants and assumptions that can be considered when defining this problem. The chapter also includes an overview of the algorithms and approaches that have been presented in the literature to design such networks.

A fuel levy is one of the market-based measures (MBMs) currently under consideration at the International Maritime Organization. MBMs have been proposed to improve the energy efficiency of the shipping sector and reduce its emissions. This paper analyses the economic and environmental implications of two types of levy on shipping bunker fuels by means of an analytical model built on the cobweb theorem. A unit-tax per ton of fuel and an ad-valorem tax, enforced as a percentage of fuel prices, are examined. In both cases, a speed and fuel-consumption reduction equivalent to an improvement in the energy efficiency of the sector would be expected as a result of the regulation enforcement. The speed reduction in the unit-tax case depends on fuel prices and the tax amount, whereas in the ad-valorem case it relies upon the enforced tax percentage.
Both schemes lead to industry profit decline, the extent of which depend on the structure of the levy and market conditions. Since there is concern that the costs resulting from the policy will be passed from shipping companies to their customers along the supply chain, the paper dwells on how the costs arising from the enforcement of the levy will be actually allocated between ship-owners and operators, and cargo-owners. In a market characterised by high freight rates and with no or limited excess capacity, a higher percentage of the total tax amount is transferred from ship-owners to shippers. In case of a recession the opposite happens.

Green shipping as an emerging concept which aims to mitigate the negative environmental impacts caused by shipping activities has received more and more attentions recently. However, there is a gap in knowledge how to take the efficacious measures, which makes it difficult for the stakeholders of shipping activities to promote green shipping. In order to fill this gap, this chapter proposed a generic methodology for establishing a criterion evaluation system for greenness assessment of shipping, including the identification of the success factors, the development of some strategic measures, and the analysis of the measures for enhancing the greenness of shipping. A criterion evaluation system which consists of multiple criteria in five aspects including: technological aspect, economic aspect, environmental aspect, social aspect, and managerial aspect has been firstly established. Subsequently, Analytic Network Process (ANP) has been employed to determine the relative importance of these factors in green shipping with the consideration of the interdependences and interactions among these criteria for evaluating the greenness of shipping, and they have been ranked from the most important to the least. Accordingly, the key success factors for green shipping have been obtained. Then, some strategic measures for helping the stakeholders enhance the greenness of shipping have been proposed. Finally, Interpretative Structuring Modeling (ISM) has been employed to analyze the cause-effect relationships among these measures and the features of these measures.

Maritime shipping is the transmission belt of the global economy. It is also a major contributor to global environmental change through its under-regulated air, water and land impacts. It is puzzling that shipping is a lagging sector as it has a well-established global regulatory body—the International Maritime Organization. Drawing on original empirical evidence and archival data, we introduce a four-factor framework to investigate two main questions: why is shipping lagging in its environmental governance; and what is the potential for the International Maritime Organization to orchestrate emerging private ‘green shipping’ initiatives to achieve better ecological outcomes? Contributing to transnational governance theory, we find that conditions stalling regulatory progress include low environmental issue visibility, poor interest alignment, a broadening scope of environmental issues, and growing regulatory fragmentation and uncertainty. The paper concludes with pragmatic recommendations for the International Maritime Organization to acknowledge the regulatory difficulties and seize the opportunity to orchestrate environmental progress.