LNG Marine Fuel Institute changes name to Clean Marine Fuel Institute
In early December 2020, the non-profit organisation, LNG Marine Fuel Institute (LNG MFI) changed its name to the Clean Marine Fuel Institute (Clean MFI) to reflect the global maritime industry’s aim to decarbonise marine fuels.
When the institute was first established in 2017, Clean MFI CEO Margot Matthews said the maritime industry’s focus was directed at the impacts on the human health of shipping – specifically the SOx (sulphur), NOx (nitrogen oxides) and particulates.
According to Ms. Matthews, “This was driven by impending sulphur regulations from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), a specialised UN agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships.”
She added, “Back then, discussions around alternative marine fuels were limited primarily to liquefied natural gas (LNG), as it addressed particulate reduction and significantly reduced SOx and NOx emissions with a material reduction (30+ percentage) in greenhouse gases.”
However, as 2020 approached, many changes were noticed in the maritime industry. With the IMO dealing with the sulphur regulations primarily, its focus shifted to creating regulations around the marine industry’s decarbonisation tactics. It also included the industry’s ambition to reduce its average carbon intensity by up to 40 percent by 2030 and 70 percent by 2050, compared to 2008.
She also stated that to achieve decarbonising global shipping via the two-pronged approach, it is necessary to grow the existing LNG ship fleet and bunkering capacity while efficiently and effectively developing zero-emission fuels.
“It’s not a case of doing one or the other – we need both,” she said. “To reach the goals of the IMO, we need to be working together on zero-emission fuels as the ultimate objective and using cleaner fuels such as LNG during the transition period.”
“The IMO GHG emission targets create opportunities for us to adopt alternative marine fuels and, along with our members, we are committed to making this happen,” Ms Matthews concluded. “Our success will be measured through how efficiently, effectively and sustainably we can help our members turn this into a reality.”
In November 2020, IMO held a meeting whereby the voting will happen in 2021 for the proposed amendments on reducing shipping emissions. The aim is to tackle both how ships will be equipped and how they are operated.
The organization aims to transition efficiently and sustainably to zero-emission fuels to benefit international maritime shipping and reduce the environmental footprint by facilitating the acceleration of clean marine fuel with invested stakeholders.
Source:
LNG Marine Fuel Institute