Vitol’s Head of Transition Ian Butler says that the global commodity trader is ‘in a really strong starting position with a modern fleet’ which will enable it to exceed the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) target of reducing carbon emissions in shipping by 40% compared to 2008.
In a notice posted on the Vitol website yesterday (10 June), Butler said that the company ‘did a full cost analysis of all the technology available and what would be the quickest and most cost-effective way to meet these targets’ – and the technologies in which they have invested are now delivering the ‘small incremental gains’ which Vitol can ‘build up to achieve 5-10% efficiencies on [its] vessels’.
These technologies include: installing propeller boss fin caps; retrofitting mewis ducts to improve the fluid dynamics around the propeller; upgrading ship software; using anti-foul paint to increase the ship efficiency as it cuts through the water; and replacing all lightbulbs onboard vessels with LEDs.
'You can see the impact of these measures in our vessel Elandra Bay, which has just sailed from dry dock,' said Butler. 'A new propeller and a mewis duct have been fitted, and the hull has been sandblasted and repainted with high performance anti-foul paint.'
The big changes will come with the switchover to alternative marine fuels. Butler noted that: ‘IMO wants to move away from heavy fuel oils to biogenic materials, such as bioLNG, methanol (e-methanol), or biomethanol. There are also ongoing discussions into green ammonia which is a zero carbon fuel but has trickier issues associated in how it is handled safely.’
Butler was clear that the shipping industry ‘needs to embrace alternative fuels’, but he judged that: ‘Not one single technology or future fuel will win, it will be a combination depending on the style of the ship. Smaller vessels may go to hydrogen, larger vessels may move to biofuels. There are even conversations around nuclear vessels coming in, but nuclear tends to scare people.’
Click here to view the full notice on the Vitol website.
