The Lloyd’s List Podcast: Shipping’s multifarious multi-fuel future

Imagine pulling up to the petrol pump in your car and being confronted with 20 pumps, each offering different blends of different fuels. Now imagine a scenario where at each petrol station you visit next, that choice of different fuels is going to be entirely different. Welcome to the future of shipping. We talk in broad terms about a multi-fuel future coming for shipping, but there is still such little clarity over what that means in practical terms and it’s about to get more complex before it gets easier. LCA or lifecycle analysis is another acronym that everyone will to have to get familiar with shortly because the consideration of the carbon impact of the fuel choices shipping will make in the future is going to be factored into regulation, and it’s coming soon. LCA will need to be considered in the context of ordering decisions that have already been taken and likely will be taken over the next year or so. Dual fuel engines are now effectively standard in many asset classes and it’s looking likely that the flexible hybrid option is going to dominate for some time to come as owners pay through the nose for flexibility amid uncertainty. So this week the Lloyd’s List Podcast brings you two experts with important points to make on this topic. Martin Wold is a naval architect and consultant working in DNV’s knowledge hub on alternative fuels and spends a lot of his time working out which fuels will fit which ships. I caught up with him this week as he put out his latest snapshot of which engine types are being ordered where. But first we catch up with Edwin Pang – also a naval architect, and the founder of consultancy Arcsilea. Edwin is one of the key movers and shakers inside the current regulatory discussion defining lifecycle analysis, so we started talking about factors that are affecting ordering decisions today and why that process is about to get more complicated. Martin Wold, Senior Consultant Environment Advisory at DNV Edwin Pang, founder and principal consultant of Arcsilea