Research Projects

Air pollution by Ships

The European Union funded project MAGALOG is seeking reduction of ship borne air pollution by promoting LNG (liquefied natural gas) as a fuel for ships. MAGALOG is looking at the feasibility of establishing a LNG bunker supply chain in the North Sea and Baltic Sea Region.

The €1.2m project has been initiated by Baltic Energy Forum e.V., a German NGO as well as a European (IEE) energy management agency. The project is backed by Gasnor, a Norwegian gas supply company, local authorities in the port cities of Lübeck, Germany, and Swinoujscie, Poland, the Norwegian research institute Marintek and the oil and gas interest group Hordaland Oil and Gas, a Norwegian lobbying group promoting natural gas as an environmentally friendly fuel.
Jörg Sträussler, MAGALOG, initiator and public relations manager of the project, believes it is one of the most challenging projects in a long time.
"We strongly believe there is the case for LNG as a fuel in sulphur emission restriction areas of the Baltic and North Sea” he says. "However, there is a chicken and egg problem. The LNG bunker terminals need to be in place before the ship owners will invest in LNG propulsion.”

The project is looking at the feasibility of a small scale LNG bunker supply chain within six areas in the Baltic and eastern part of the North Sea, including Stockholm, Gothenburg and Helsinki. The project is also set to examine the demand side, to identify which vessels would be likely to utilise LNG fuel. The candidates will be vessels which operate exclusively in the SECA (sulfur emission control area) regions: especially ferries and Ro-Ro vessels.
The challenge is then to convince ship owners to turn to LNG as a dedicated marine fuel. The benefits of using LNG are well documented, with virtually no particulate or sulphur oxide emissions, and a dramatic reduction in NOX production. Several ship owners have already declared interest. One of the largest ferry operators in the Baltic Sea said in June 2008: “We are seriously considering building the vessels for LNG, and to be ready to operate from 2011.”

The Baltic and North Seas have already been specified by IMO as SECA, with a present upper limit of 1.5% for the sulphur content of ships' fuels, 1% by 2010 and 0.5% by 2015. Norway imposes a nitrogen oxide levy of l5 Norwegian kroner/kg and this is set to increase, while harbour dues are differentiated by environmental performance in Swedish ports such as Stockholm and Gothenburg.

The MAGALOG members point out that current ship emission cleaning technologies do not meet future environmental requirements nor has the contribution that shipping and aviation will have to make in slowing the pace of climate change beyond 2012 been adequately dealt with.

Amongst the early practical steps being taken to face up to these problems, the MAGALOG members are seeking to create a small-scale LNG supply network in the Baltic Sea region in order to promote the development of LNG as a clean fuel for ships. The first of the terminals will be established in Lübeck while investment research will be conducted in Swinoujscie and three other port cities in the Baltic.

When the project is completed, the MAGALOG members point out that it should be possible for a ship owner to order an LNG-fuelled vessel, which can bunker in at least two cities in the Baltic. Taking it a stage further, one participant at the inaugural MAGALOG conference in Bergen in January 2007 stated, "We believe that in 5-10 years the majority of ships contracted for Short Sea trading in the Baltic will use LNG as a fuel."

Over the longer term MAGALOG could also help open the door to biogas and provide a bridge to a hydrogen economy.

The MAGALOG initiator, Jörg Sträussler of the Baltic Energy Forum, said the project will end with a conference, showing the results of the project, in Lübeck, Germany, on 4th December 2008.