Nordic green shipping corridor project shortlists six out of 81 prospects – DNV
A DNV-led project mapped 81 potential green shipping corridors in the Nordic regional cluster and selected six as viable candidates for further study, according to a recent DNV webinar.
MAP: Six green shipping corridor routes (green) shortlisted in the Nordics. Nordic roadmap project
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Aland constitute the Nordic region of the European continent.
A project, called Nordic Roadmap has shortlisted six green shipping corridors along this cluster: Greenland-Denmark, two possible routes between Sweden and Finland, Norway-Sweden, Norway-Denmark, and Sweden to the European mainland.
It will now initiate pilot studies on three of these green shipping routes to evaluate the fuel availability, vessel traffic and identify key risks to the project. It will focus on hydrogen, ammonia and methanol as bunker fuels, Øyvind Endresen, project manager at Nordic Roadmap told the webinar.
Project partners include shipping companies Viking Line and Stena Line, engine maker Wartsila and ammonia producer Yara International, among others.
“Green shipping corridors will be an important mechanism now in the beginning; to establish the necessary partnerships, to get the fuel infrastructure up and running in the key ports, to gain experience with new ship fuels and technologies, and to ensure well-developed safety regulations,” Dorthe Alida Slotvik, consultant in environment advisory at DNV Maritime said.
Ammonia and methanol demand to outpace supply
Ammonia and methanol are expected to see higher demand compared to hydrogen from vessels visiting the Nordic ports by 2030. This expected demand is likely to outweigh the current planned production for these fuels. In contrast, the estimated hydrogen production in the region is likely to outpace the demand from incoming vessel traffic by 2030.
Norwegian intelligence firm Menon Economics charted the project's infrastructure readiness. There are currently 140 green and blue ammonia, methanol and hydrogen production projects planned in the Nordics by 2030, Erik Jakobsen, chairman at Menon Economics mentioned in the webinar.
Norway accounted for the majority of these projects, followed by Denmark and Sweden. The Nordics would have access to some green and blue fuels by 2025, but the majority supply would be available only between 2027-2030, the report revealed.
Scope of bunkering future fuels at Nordic ports
A total of 37 ports in the Nordic cluster along the six shortlisted corridor routes were analysed for the sake of the project, Jakobsen added. These ports are mainly located in the Baltic Sea around Stockholm, Copenhagen and the western coast of Norway.
Out of these undisclosed ports, only 17 ports had planned to “enable bunkering of at least one of the three fuel”, with all of them planning to enable hydrogen bunkering, a Menon Economics-led survey of ports found. Majority of the ports were located in Norway, followed by Denmark and Sweden. DNV has not specified the names of the ports to maintain privacy.
The survey concluded that:
- At least one of the fuel out of hydrogen, ammonia, or methanol can be bunkered at these ports
- The ports would be “a distribution point” for either of the three fuel
- Some of the fuels will be produced in or around the ports
Several of these ports identified safety guidelines and regulations as one of the most significant barriers to increasing fuel uptake, Jakobsen noted.
Bunkering potential was also undermined by a lack of infrastructure, the survey found. On the other hand, technological readiness, access to fuels and proximity to production plants took a back seat as hurdles to alternative fuel bunkering at ports.
By Konica Bhatt
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