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Great Yarmouth-based Alicat has been awarded North Star Renewables’ initial multi-million-pound contract to bring its first two daughter craft to the renewables market. The vessels will utilise a combination of diesel and electric outboards, a world first for this form of workboat.

Once completed, the vessels with low carbon emission potential are destined for the Dogger Bank Wind Farm, 130km off England’s north east coast and set to offer capacity of up to 3.6GW once complete.

Alicat director, Simon Coote, said: “This multi-million-pound contract is a significant win for our business as it further establishes us on the renewables map as the first company in the world to build hybrid powered daughter craft, which is also the first offshore wind daughter craft to be built in the UK.”

Stabiliser technology

Designed by Southampton-based naval architects Chartwell Marine in collaboration with North Star, the hybrid propulsion daughter crafts include stabiliser technology ensuring reduced carbon emissions and boosting safety and comfort. It has an increased sea state operability and safe transfer, tank tested at wave heights of up to 1.7m Hs – significantly higher than any alternative wind farm daughter craft.

The daughter craft will be used to safely transfer technicians from their accommodation onboard North Star’s service offshore vessels (SOVs), to work on the offshore wind turbines at Dogger Bank A and B.

Dogger Bank A and B are a joint venture between SSE Renewables (40%), Equinor (40%) and Eni (20%). Dogger Bank C is a joint venture between SSE Renewables (50%) and Equinor (50%).

SSE Renewables is leading on the construction of the wind farm and Equinor will operate the wind farm for its lifetime of up to 35 years.

The first daughter craft is being delivered 12 months ahead of schedule, under the build supervision locally of North Star Group’s Boston Putford division in Lowestoft. This will allow time for performance analysis and improvements, crew training and additional development ahead of the first of three SOVs arriving from summer 2023.

Source: www.maritimejournal.com

Image: www.pexels.com

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Throughout this year, the Port Authority of Leixões (APDL) will present its Energy Transition Roadmap, which should guide concrete actions aimed at making Leixões one of the first non-polluting ports, placing it at the level of the main ports in the world and redoubling its commitment to the growth of a sustainable activity.

Achieving carbon neutrality and energy self-sufficiency by 2035, will mean doing so 15 years earlier than stipulated in the so-called European Green Deal. A commitment made by all EU member states to achieve climate neutrality and setting out a continental strategy to make European ports the first emission-free zone in the world by 2050.

Nuno Araújo, president of the board of directors of APDL, commented: “The goal is to become an international reference port in southern Europe in the transition to a new energy system based on the use of its own natural resources, with the ambition to be a self-sufficient port with zero emissions”,

The decarbonisation plan does not only include measures aimed at phasing out fossil fuels but also the main source of energy in port activity. This will require a search for innovative formulas to generate energy using the natural resources of the port as well as for alternative proposals to be more efficient in consumption.

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“I want to announce that in support of the global effort to keep us in reach of 1.5 degrees Celsius and in support of global efforts to achieve net zero by no later than 2050, the United States is committing to work with countries in the IMO to adopt the goal of achieving net zero emissions from international shipping by no later than 2050,” he told a conference hosted by the Ocean Conservancy.

The global sector emits 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, according to the Ocean Conservancy, on par with Germany’s annual emissions.

The United States, along with Saudi Arabia, had been one of the two countries to issue a formal “reservation” on the IMO’s initial greenhouse gas strategy.

Kerry told the conference that the United States will help deploy the technologies needed to rapidly reduce the sector’s emissions, which he said are “known to us” that require investment to scale up.

European Union and British officials sent a letter to Biden in March urging the United States to address shipping emissions in its forthcoming climate plan under the 2015 Paris agreement and that responsibility for all ship emissions be split between the country of origin and country of destination.

The United States is expected to announce its new goal, known as a Nationally Determined Contribution, as soon as Wednesday ahead of the summit.

The Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental group based in Washington, called on the Biden administration to commit to its own zero-emissions goal by 2035, saying that under international law the country can require all ships docking at domestic ports adhere to a clean shipping standard.

source: Reuters (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Jonathan Oatis and Lisa Shumaker)

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“Going forward, we will only order ships which have zero carbon emission capability,” managing director of the company’s Singapore arm, Rene Piil Pedersen told S&P Global Platts on the sidelines of the Marine Money conference held in Singapore on April 20.

This means that even though these new ships will have dual fuel engine capability and can use diesel when zero carbon emitting fuels are unavailable, this will only be opted as a last resort.

“The diesel fuel [in new build ships] will only be a backup if availability of zero carbon fuels is not there,” Pedersen said.

The halt in purchase does not include ships for which the order has already been placed, he said, but added that the company’s orderbook as a percentage of total fleet size is very small.

Maersk is now focusing on innovative supply chain solutions, integrating inland services and logistics along with decarbonization of ocean transportation, he said.

“It’s a chicken and egg situation where we can identify the technology, but the infrastructure to back it up is a challenge,” Pedersen said.

His comments assume significance because the company has around 700 container ships, including both own and operated, which consume around 10 million mt of fuel annually and has a potential of around 30 million mt of carbon emissions.

What is put in the engine and how it is designed is a very big challenge, he said, and many participants at the conference said cost effective solutions to meet it will be key.

Owners may not consider it viable to pay 20%-25% higher for a new ship just because it does not have any carbon emissions, but Joshua Politis, deputy managing partner at Transport Capital pointed out that at present, there is a lot of credit available chasing very few opportunities.

Order book for ships with dual fueled engines is at present dominated by “very large players” in the maritime industry, but for decarbonization to succeed, medium-sized owners should be brought onboard this initiative as they control a third of the world’s merchant fleet, Politis said.

Few months ago, Maersk ordered a 2,000 TEU container ship with zero carbon emission capability, that will run on dual fuels — methanol and diesel — and will be ready for operation by 2023.

“It is by no means a solution, but it is a start,” Pedersen said.

“We tested the methanol technology before opting it. Every technology has its advantages and disadvantages and in the next decade many technologies will be tested,” he said.

It is not just a case of picking up an alternative fuel to replace the traditional fossil fuels, they need to be tested properly because they will be used for the next 50-60 years, he added.

To meet its objective of being a zero carbon company by middle of the century, Maersk has so far reduced emissions by almost 46% compared with a 2008 baseline.

source:Platts

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The company has supported the production of 12,000 tonnes of biomethane – equivalent to a year’s fuel consumption by two 1,400 twenty-foot-equivalent (TEU) ships. The green gas is produced in part by the methanation of European-sourced organic and plant waste

CMA CGM intends to “push ahead” with the development of this biogas by investing in biomethane production facilities and studying the viability of liquefaction processes so that biomethane can be rolled out as a shipping fuel.

According to the company, 12,000 tonnes of guaranteed-of-origin biomethane is enough to fuel two 1,400-TEU LNG-powered ships operating on the Northern European Balt3 line between St Petersburg and Rotterdam for a full year.

Guarantee-of-Origin biomethane, coupled with CMA CGM’s dual-fuel gas-power technology, can reduce well-to-wake (entire value chain) greenhouse gas emissions by at least 67%; on a tank-to-wake basis (at ship level), the reduction reaches 88%.

Rodolphe Saadé, chairman and CEO of CMA CGM, said: “We have crossed a new step with the launch of the first low-carbon shipping offer based on biomethane.

“We know that there is still a long way to go to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement. Achieving these goals does not rely on a single solution, but on a set of initiatives and new technologies complementary to each other.”

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