For decades, the shipping industry’s notion that sending goods and passengers by sea was the most environmentally friendly solution was widely accepted.
However, as the new Millennium dawned, a growing number of observers started to point out that most ships used heavy fuel oil (HFO), which emitted lots of particles of sulfur and nitrogen, both of which are harmful.
As concern for the state of the environment started to worry a growing number of people, the shipping industry in general and passenger shipping companies in particular had to react.
Many ferry and cruise ship owners started to install exhaust gas cleaning systems onboard their ships, so that particle emissions could be cut while the use of HFO could continue as marine gas oil (MGO), a lower sulfur alternative, is much more expensive.
LNG was introduced an efficient way to tackle particle emissions and the first large cruise ferries using this fuel appeared in Scandinavia in 2013 and AIDAnova, the first LNG powered cruise ship, five years later.
As pressure mounted against them, authorities followed the public opinion and emission control areas that curbed particle emissions were introduced, such as one covering the Baltic and the North Sea in 2015.
However, in the meantime the public debate about the climate switched focus to green house gas emissions, such carbon dioxide (CO2). As LNG is a fossil fuel, burning it does emit CO2.
While this was happening, the United Nations’ maritime organisation IMO drafted global rules to limit particle emissions, which took effect at the beginning of this year. HFO can only be used if an exhaust gas cleaning system is fitted onboard, otherwise lower sulfur content fuels, such as MGO or LNG, must be used instead.
Torstein Hagen, founder and chairman of the Viking, has been a vocal critic of LNG, drawing attention to the fact that it does not offer a solution to eliminate CO2 emissions.
In order to go emission free, shipping will have to look at other fuels than oil or LNG, according to Hakan Enlund, EVP at the Finnish ferry builder Rauma Marine Constructions.
However, although various potential options have been tabled, there are certain conditions that they have to meet before they can be viable in marine use.
You can read more about the views of Hagen and Enlund in the next issue of CruiseBusiness.com Magazine, which will be published in the next few weeks.