Environmental and economical benefits of changing from marine diesel oil to natural-gas fuel for short-voyage high-power passenger ships

Abstract

Although the actual level of marine air pollution is unclear, the contribution of ships to global emissions can be roughly indicated as being in the following ranges: nitrogen oxides (NO x ), 10-20 per cent; carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), 2-4 per cent; sulphur oxides (SO x ), 4-8 per cent. Several studies, which aim to minimize and reduce the maritime environmental pollution by the gas emissions from ships, have shown that there are different methods by which this can be achieved. This paper shows that the use of natural gas as the main fuel on board ships is considered to be the optimum selection for this purpose as regards the environmental and economic issues. A short-voyage ship of high power rating is deemed to be suitable for naturalgas application to obtain the maximum environmental and economic benefits. As a case study, this paper discusses the environmental and the economic benefits of using natural gas as an alternative to diesel oil on board one of the high-speed passenger ships operating in the Red Sea area between Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study illustrated that NO x , SO x , particulate matter, and CO 2 emissions were reduced by 72 per cent, 91 per cent, 85 per cent, and 10 per cent respectively. In addition, the cost of both fuel consumption and maintenance operation demonstrated reductions by 39 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

Emerging technologies in marine electric propulsion

“…An improving LNG marine bunkering supply chain, particularly in Europe; 21 Proposals to fuel propulsion with LNG to meet IMO MARPOL Annex VI requirements; 17,[21][22][23] Established gas-powered technologies such as Miller cycle gas engines. 21 These factors suggest that the use of LNG fuel for shipping will increase rapidly over the next decade.…”

Thermo-economic approach for absorption air condition onboard high-speed crafts

“…There is no doubt that these ships have contributed to develop maritime transport in this area. On the other hand, it was shown by (Banawan et al, 2010) that the high power of these ships contributed to the increasing gaseous emission rate and caused a detrimental effect on the environment in this area.…”

Study of New Generation LNG Duel Fuel Marine Propulsion Green Technologies

“…[1], [3], [6], [10]) and after analysing some environmental aspects regarding marine transport efficiency ( [2], [4]) we can draw the following conclusions:  Currently we have wide range of modern marine green ships technologies available on the market used to enhance performance and sustainability for oceangoing vessels. These technologies range from simple with low capability such as traditional sails or small scale renewables wind power plants or solar modules to very capable and highly complex systems such as hybrid diesel-electric, waste heat recovery, variable speed generators or LNG & dual fuel power plants.…”