When It Comes to Ship Emissions, the Elephant in the Room Is Carbon: SGMF

SGMF has signed an MoU with LNG MFi. Image Credit: SGMF

With industry attention understandably focused on the introduction of a 0.50% global sulfur cap on marine fuel in 2020, Mark Bell, General Manager at LNG bunker advocacy group The Society for Gas as a Marine Fuel (SGMF) this week was the latest voice reminding ship owners and operators that the IMO 2020 sulfur regulation is likely only the beginning of a series of upcoming regulations on emissions.

"Shipping is still dealing with the residual Sulphur in heavy fuel oil and yet there there is an effective ban from 2020 with the global sulphur cap coming into force.  But the elephant in the room for shipping is Carbon and it needs to act quicker than it ever has before," Bell wrote in a blog post on the SGMF website.

"One candidate fuel that could be used as we move towards the use of the cleanest known fuel of hydrogen is in fact Natural Gas, commonly known as LNG in its cryogenic transported state. Shipping has successfully moved this energy around the globe for over 50 years however its very use as a fuel for shipping is another matter entirely."

Bell also noted SGMF's recent cooperation with Australian LNG lobby group LNG MFi, saying it was "best placed to promote the use of Gas in Australasia and will enjoy the full work and support of SGMF as part of that agenda."

As Ship & Bunker previously reported, LNG Marine Fuel Institute (LNG MFI) said it had struck a partnership with SGMF when it launched it Perth, Western Australia earlier this year.

Bell is just the latest voice warning that the industry needs to be looking beyond IMO 2020.

Speaking during the recent London International Shipping Week, Will Bathurst, Head of Credit & Market Analysis at bunker supplier Peninsula Petroleum, said the industry should prepare for over a decade of environmental regulatory burden.