Kyungrok Kim, World Maritime University
Air pollutants and GHG caused by marine fuel oil combustion from ships are putting a massive burden on sustainable development’s environmental, social, and economic pillars. Regarding the environment, ships’ operations have emitted air pollutants and GHG by burning fossil fuels. As a result, acid rain has been falling, and the earth’s temperature continues to increase. Concerning the social pillar, people who establish society have started to have respiratory diseases due to air pollutants from ships. Economically, the costs of treating people suffering from acute respiratory diseases by air pollution are extreme.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has addressed marine pollution from vessels as a primary concern since 1973. However, air pollution due to ship emissions has not seemed to be a primary problem because visible direct causal relations such as oil spill accidents are not found in air pollution. Therefore, it seemed that the interests and consultations of stakeholders and the public did not come easily. Fortunately, with ever-changing technological advances to detect air pollution, air pollutants have become a severe global problem. Moreover, some research institutions have found that major air pollutants are sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) contained in ship emissions. Nevertheless, it is unclear which alternative fuels are to replace conventional fossil fuels to operate ships sustainably. Therefore, finding the optimal alternative fuel from a sustainability perspective is urgent to prevent the abovementioned crisis.
If it is so, which is the optimal alternative fuel among LNG, Hydrogen, Ammonia, and Methanol in terms of sustainability? If the optimal alternative fuel is selected in terms of sustainability, how is the technological feasibility of the alternative fuel? The result of this thesis will offer the answers to the above questions. Significantly, the perspective of sustainability will consist of environmental, social, and economic aspects:
1. This thesis will evaluate the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of all four alternative fuel options to addrss environmental factors.
2. The author will consider potential seafarers’ health risks due to the nature of alternative fuels and the social health benefits by reaching zero emissions will be introduced.
3. Net Present Value in new building alternative-fueled vessels will be estimated to consider eco-nomic factors.
Through this process, the optimal alternative fuel can be selected from a sustainability perspective. In addition, it will examine whether the optimal alternative fuel in terms of sustainability can be technically applied according to container ship sizes.
The World Maritime University (WMU) and NSB Group have been helping to find the result of the above topic. WMU is a global center of excellence recognized by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the United Nations General Assembly. NSB Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellschaft mbH & Co, KG, one of the largest German ship management companies, provides many services such as managing container vessels and offshore installation vessels as well as the supervision of new buildings all over the world. At the heart of the activities is coordinating the entire vessel’s operations in nautical, technical, and personnel services.