move toward using liquid natural gas (LNG) as a marine fuel is continuing to gain momentum as new environmental regulations are enacted and bunkering facilities are expanded. According to a recent forecast by MEC Intelligence, a market insight firm that focuses on the maritime sector, nearly 10,000 vessels could be adopting LNG propulsion by 2020 compared to less than 100 today. Prior to MEC’s forecast, classification society Det Norske had predicted that LNG would become the dominant fuel source for all merchant ships within 40 years. The reason for such growth is strict emission regulations requiring the reduction of sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) to 0.1 percent in Emission Control Areas (ECAs) by 2015 and 0.5 percent globally by 2020. The key compliance options available for vessel operators are either adoption of new types of fuel, such as LNG or low sulphur marine gasoil, or by using “scrubber” technology on existing heavy fuel oil (HFO) burning powerplants. LNG, besides becoming cheaper as new sources are opened up through fracking, cuts carbon emissions by about 25 percent, SOx by almost 100 percent and NOx by 85 percent…. (Read Full Article)
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