The water taxi that links the remnants of Rotterdam’s former nautical majesty to the city’s harsh port neighborhoods roars with a powerful diesel motor.
The opulent Hotel New York is the backdrop for the yellow speedboat’s docking, displaying the city’s rich history of international shipping.
The 122-year-old structure was once the main office of the Dutch shipping line Holland America Line. It is one of the few that survived the heavy bombing of Rotterdam during World War Two. The building’s facade still bears the firm’s name in big lettering.
The Port of Rotterdam Authority, located next door in a skyscraper that resembles a lighthouse, is eager to focus on the future of shipping rather than its history. More precisely, it is drawing attention to the ways in which the industry can keep up its efforts to lower emissions.
The authority, managing and operating the biggest port in Europe, has collaborated with its counterpart in Singapore to establish one of the world’s inaugural long-distance green shipping lanes.
The concept underlying these corridors is that only zero- or low-emission fuels are used by cargo ships while they navigate these routes. As alternatives to fuel oil, new storage facilities for green fuels like methanol and ammonia are being constructed in Rotterdam and Singapore to help make this viable.
A gas called ammonia is created when nitrogen and hydrogen combine. If completely renewable energy is used to make the hydrogen, it is referred to as “green ammonia”. In the meantime, alcohol in the form of methanol can also be made using renewable energy.
According to Boudewijn Siemons, interim chief executive of the Port of Rotterdam, the collaboration between the Dutch city and Singapore is intended to demonstrate the concept’s practical applicability.
“It’s a pragmatic approach to carbon reduction in shipping,” according to him. “We must begin somewhere, and the implementation of zero emission shipping as a comprehensive solution globally is not a viable starting point.”
“For this reason, we are looking for these green corridors as small-scale evidence sites. From there, we must scale up.”
This year’s September saw the first container ship travel in this environmentally friendly manner between Singapore and Rotterdam. The Laura Maersk was propelled by methanol, which at this time can cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 65% as compared to using fossil fuels.
The idea for green corridors originated at COP26, the 2021 global environmental conference that took place in Glasgow, Scotland. 22 nations, including the UK, signed the Clydebank Declaration, which contained a pledge to build at least six corridors by the middle of this decade.
New lanes have been announced for this month’s COP28 in the United Arab Emirates. These include a corridor in the Caribbean, one between Houston, Texas, and Antwerp, Belgium, and one connecting Canada’s west coast to Korea and Japan.
It came after the shipping industry’s representative body, the International Maritime Organization, promised that net-zero emissions will be reached “by or around” 2050.
Ship manufacturers undoubtedly confront a significant challenge as ports like Rotterdam continue to be ready for the shift to zero emission shipping.
According to industry statistics, only 0.6% of cargo ships worldwide are powered by alternative fuels, and only 15% to 16% of newly ordered vessels will be powered by dual or alternative fuels.
However, there is a vocal need for more environmentally friendly shipping, exemplified by the massive online retailer Amazon. The company has renewed a lowered emissions deal with shipping behemoth Maersk. The company is a founding member of the Zero-Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance, together with other businesses including furniture conglomerate Ikea and clothing company Patagonia.
In the meantime, the freight company North Sea Container Line is introducing an ammonia-powered ship that will sail between Germany and Norway. Additionally, 12 new ammonia-ready ships are being built by Hoegh Autoliners, a company that specializes in vehicle and rail transportation.
The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonization, an organization that encourages the transition to green fuels in the sector, is led by Lynn Loo as CEO. According to her predictions, by 2050, ammonia production may quadruple or possibly triple.
According to Ms. Loo, “a dramatic rise in the number of vessels capable of transporting ammonia from the 200 that are on the water today” is required. “Significant infrastructure buildout is required to support the much higher throughput of ammonia in the future,” the speaker continues.
According to Edward Glossop, head of sustainable operations at Bunker Holding, the largest maritime fuel provider in the world, “none of these are going to be easy to scale.”
However, ammonia might be the easiest. We intend to be a commercial provider of low emission ammonia over the next three years, and the first ammonia engines will be delivered to shipyards by the end of 2024.”
Enforcing green shipping lanes is not currently planned, though, and industry observers question if they will gain traction.
The cost of future fuels is something we already know, says seasoned marine economist Martin Stopford. “You’re attempting to implement change that’ll make people poorer, so it’ll be unpopular.”
The marine industry will face competition for supplies from industries like manufacturing, home heating, road transportation, and aviation, he continues, even if production of clean fuels does take off.
“There is going to be some very big heavyweights in the queue ahead of shipping,” adds Stopford.
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The decarbonization of shipping is a process that Mr. Siemons admits “is both complex and expensive”.
“But we should not predict the future based on the state of the technologies today, and on the state of the markets today,” he says.
“Yes today fuel oil is cheaper than hydrogen or ammonia, but that doesn’t mean it has to be so in the future.”
Even Rotterdam’s yellow water taxis are joining the green shift out on the water in front of his building. This is where Europe’s first electric water taxi debuted in 2016, and a hydrogen-powered model followed suit last year.
“It has to all become renewable,” Mr. Siemons said in closing.
