An Assessment of Alternative Fuels for Oceangoing Vessels

During the 21st Climate Change Summit in Paris in 2015, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) pledged to adopt necessary measures to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from shipping. Several research studies and maritime classification society outlooks argue that the true path to effective decarbonization of the shipping industry could only be achieved by adopting low-carbon or zero-carbon alternative fuel sources. This research was aimed to systematically analyze the three main deep-sea alternate fuel options: Hydrogen, Ammonia & Methanol, which can potentially achieve IMO's 2050 ambitions. Each of these fuel alternatives was assessed against Technical, Environmental, Economic and Social attributes. The systematic assessment was carried out through a hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method, which combines Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Primary data was collected through an online survey involving 57 experts in the maritime industry to compute criteria weights. The results from the AHP pairwise comparison indicated that Environmental attributes were the most preferred criterion for the assessment of alternate marine fuels, followed by Technical, Economic and Social Attributes. The findings of this research can assist the maritime sector's decision-makers in making an informed decision on selecting the most suitable alternate fuel option for their deep-sea fleet, capable of achieving global GHG emission targets of 2050 and beyond.

Keywords: Alternative fuels, MCDM, AHP, Hydrogen, Ammonia, Methanol, Maritime sustainability.