Technical Presentation 2 August 2023: IMO Navigates the Age of Alternative Marine Fuels
Robert McMahon, Marine Engineer and Energy Consultant/Auditor, gave a presentation on IMO Navigates the Age of Alternative Marine Fuels to a joint meeting of the NSW Section and IMarEST ACT & NSW Branch in the Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics School of Arts in the Sydney CBD, with the IMarEST Secretary, Geoffrey Fawcett, as MC and streamed live on 2 August. The presentation was attended by 26 with an additional 31 online.
IMO has turned up the heat on ship owners, managers, and seagoing personnel by strengthening mandatory regulations and telegraphing full speed ahead to ships’ decarbonisation and net zero GHG emissions targets.
Ship owners are demonstrating a surge of interest in energy-efficient improvements in vessels, reducing energy consumption in existing ships, effective supply-chain planning, and in building highly-efficient IMO-compliant, safe and profitable new vessels.
This presentation looked at current IMO regulations and showed a selection of information on owner approaches to different vessel types, and from present to future compliance with statutory safety rules, emissions regulations and crew-training requirements.
Included in the discussion were the pros and cons of the chemical and physical properties of different marine fuels, from diesel through alternate drop-in biofuels, LNG and methanol, to high-fire-risk hydrogen and highly-toxic-to-humans ammonia, electric systems and nuclear power, plus sail assist, AI assist and digital monitoring.
In conclusion, many known problems and side-effect issues still require resolution to reach a safe IMO green-energy nirvana with net zero ships’ emissions from well to wake.
The presentation was recorded and is expected to be available soon on the RINA YouTube channel.
The vote of thanks was proposed by Steve Morant, and the “thank you” bottle of wine was subsequently delivered to Robert via an eGift card.
