An analysis of available solutions for commercial vessels to comply with IMO strategy on low sulphur

Abstract

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) strategy reduces ship emission to 2020 and zero in 2050, the ship-owners and ship operators are looking for economic solutions to meet the new emission requirements. The available solutions include using Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) or sulphur-free-fuel, switching form high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) to marine gas oil or distillate fuels, using very-low-sulphur fuel oil or compliant fuel blends and using scrubber/exhaust gas cleaning system on the ship, which allows operation on regular HSFO. The cost of changing and using fuel may be too high as a barrier for Vietnamese ship-owner. Therefore, advantages and disadvantages of available options need to analysis. In this article, the pros and cons of available options were analysed by using thematic PLEET analysis that considering political, legal, economic, environmental, technological and sociological aspects. The results show that using compliant blended fuel is a priority solution for the most Vietnamese commercial shipowners as well as using LNG fuel will be a solution for building new ships. It is expected that this research would make any contribution to improving the efficiency of commercial ships to satisfy the IMO's strategy.

Ports in a Storm: Port-City Environmental Challenges and Solutions

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Primer on the Cost of Marine Fuels Compliant with IMO 2020 Rule

“…For instance, Cuong and Hung evaluate the options for Vietnamese shipowners to comply with the 2020 sulfur cap considering political, legal, economic, environmental, technological, and sociological aspects. They conclude that a compliant blended fuel (e.g., VLSFO) is the priority solution for the existing Vietnamese commercial fleet, most of which is old, while LNG appears as an attractive solution for new ships (Cuong and Hung, 2020).…”

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“…The aim of weather routing services is to support to ship master [5], [6] to reach minimum time. Nowadays, with the legal air emissions from the vessel and the increasing oil price, various optimal voyage is combined with weather routing measures [7]- [9] in order to support making optimum routing and ship's speed [10], considering the minimum fuel consumption [11], reaching time arrival, and ship's safety [12]. Therefore, the ship's speed or power performance will operate in different conditions [13]- [15].…”