Ways the Shipping Industry Can Reduce Carbon Emissions – A Cleaner & Sustainable Future

Incremental measures, which will mostly take place in the short term, would not be difficult to implement and would result in a reduction in emissions in each vessel by a significant level. These measures would include improvements in hull design, optimisation of propellers and recovery of waste heat. Other possible upgrades for seagoing vessels would include the installation of ship bows featuring bulbous extensions beneath the water line to minimize drag and the painting of hulls with coatings that have low friction.

These would include such policies as 'slow steaming'; that is, for ships to travel at slower speeds, thereby significantly reducing fuel consumption. For example, a reduction of 12% in average speed at sea, will result in a 27% decrease in fuel consumption, which in turn will mean that less greenhouse gas emissions will take place. A further operational measure would be route optimisation, which happens to be a technology that predicts the most cost-effective route for a ship through several sea locations and stops, thereby minimising fuel consumption. Sustainability initiatives at an operational level can also be seen at certain shipping terminals such as South Asia Gateway Terminals, which focus on areas like energy, emissions and environmental compliance along with investments in energy-efficient infrastructure.

Harnessing renewable energy, particularly the utilisation of wind-assistance or wind power for propulsion, would also contribute to reducing emissions. In this regard, trials have been made using kite systems in addition to the developments by companies such as Norsepower and Enercon who have made advances in installing various rotor designs on seagoing vessels. Although renewable energy is not a completely new idea, it holds promise for future design in the generations of ships to come.

Energy storage could lead to noteworthy reductions in emissions. If energy is stored through the utilisation of batteries or 'cold ironing' (the procedure of supplying electrical power to a vessel at berth by the shore with its main as well as auxiliary engines turned off) significant emission reductions would result. In this manner, the shipping sector would be able to decarbonise with electricity generated through a low carbon grid. Developments in energy storage could lead to further decarbonisation through the creation of fully electric ships.

However, the most noteworthy emission reductions would be brought about by switching to a fuel that has a low content of sulphur. In the recent past, over 90,000 ships were involved in burning almost 2 billion barrels of the most damaging kind of fuel oil each year. Therefore, it was stipulated that by 2020, ships would be obliged to utilise fuel that has a sulphur content of no more than 0.5%; previously, fuel with a sulphur content of as much as 3.5% was permitted to be used. This regulation is called the 2020 Sulphur Cap. No doubt limiting the emissions of sulphur oxides by ships will result in reduced air pollution as well as a cleaner environment overall.