Techno-economic challenges of alternative fuels in port operations: A literature review connected to storage, transport & distribution, and bunkering in the maritime sector
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Program
Maritime management (MPMAR), MSc
Publicerad
2023
Författare
Yang, Richard
Olsson, Sten
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
The maritime sector is in need of decarbonization to lower GHG emissions and to
fulfill goals set by IMO. This thesis analyzes hydrogen, methanol, and ammonia as
alternative fuels to traditional fuels. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the
selected energy carriers' techno-economic challenges in terms of transportation,
distribution, storage, and bunkering. Based on scientific articles published up until
2023, the primary emphasis according to the reviewed research in this thesis is on
hydrogen, followed by ammonia, and finally methanol. Methodically, this thesis
investigates literature published on the scholarly database Scopus and reviews case
studies in order to comparatively assess the challenges and viabilities of the selected
alternative fuels. Common challenges found in the scientific literature reviewed,
includes lower density than conventional fuels, safety hazards, and redevelopment
costs. Of the three alternative fuels investigated, hydrogen requires the largest storage
facilities, the most significant investments for development, and is the most expensive
to transport. Whereas ammonia benefits from pre-existing infrastructure as it is used
within other sectors. However, both ammonia and hydrogen require special storage
units, and suffer from boil-off, leakage, and need investments in bunkering facilities.
Methanol does not have any special individual challenges and notably, the mean
transportation costs via vessel for methanol is 0,77 USD/GJ/10 000 km which is a
fraction in costs compared to hydrogen at 41,89 USD/GJ/10 000 km and ammonia at
5,71USD/GJ/10 000 km. In conclusion, hydrogen faces the most prominent
challenges, despite the fact that more research is being published than ammonia and
methanol. Methanol has the least techno-economic challenges but is on the other hand
notcarbon free. Therefore, methanol is not a viable option to obtain zero carbon
emissions from ships.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
hydrogen , methanol , ammonia , port infrastructure , fuel storage , fuel transport , fuel distribution , fuel bunkering