The role of hydrogen in achieving Net Zero: a shipping perspective

Abstract

HM Government’s “Clean Maritime Plan” (2019) targets zero emission shipping to be “commonplace” by 2050 and that all new ship orders by 2025 should be capable of delivering zero emission propulsion.
1 For these goals to be achieved, significant investment in alternative fuels is required.
2. The long-life span of large ships requires an early start to both retrofit of existing vessels as well as preparing the ground for a transition to new build zero carbon ship from 2025 onwards.
3. Large scale shipping is a challenging sector to decarbonise, primarily due to large energy demands coupled with limited onboard storage capacity. Alternative fuels are imperative to eliminate both greenhouse gas emissions and harmful pollutants that damage the health of seafarers and port communities.
4. Hydrogen is a viable candidate to provide emission-free propulsion and is cleaner and easier to produce without emissions than other alternatives being considered (such as ammonia or methanol). All combustion technologies are relatively inefficient and even those using zero carbon fuels (e.g., ammonia) lead to polluting emissions (e.g., NOx). Consequently, immediate research and innovation into electro-chemical approaches for powering large ships and other heavy-duty industrial uses are essential.
5. Our main policy recommendations are:  Invest in the research and development of hydrogen production, storage and transfer technologies for ships, ports and large industrial users.  Develop and introduce evidence-based safety regulations and protocols specific to alternative fuels and in particular hydrogen.  Increase subsidies for zero emission/zero carbon hydrogen production (such as water electrolysis).  Further research into the development of fuel cells or fuel cell/battery hybrid systems for ships and other major industrial off-grid applications.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Charles John McKinlay: orcid.org/0000-0002-8345-0271

ORCID for Stephen Turnock: orcid.org/0000-0001-6288-0400

ORCID for Dominic Hudson: orcid.org/0000-0002-2012-6255

ORCID for Yikun Wang: orcid.org/0000-0001-5619-7795

ORCID for Richard Wills: orcid.org/0000-0002-4805-7589

ORCID for Damon Teagle: orcid.org/0000-0002-4416-8409

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