The world is covered in oceans. Not surprisingly, ocean shipping is a huge business — an estimated $14 trillion worth, annually.
At the heart of the industry are container vessels three or four football fields long, plying the world’s waterways, powered by heavy fuel oil. They, and the ports they visit, are responsible for 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
This may sound tiny, but eliminating those emissions could synergize decarbonization across global, land-based trade and energy networks.
In July 2023, the UN-affiliated International Maritime Organization (IMO) vowed to do just that, cutting global shipping emissions to net-zero by 2050. Currently, an international effort is underway to reach that goal.
Green shipping fuels will be the key: methanol produced from carbon dioxide and molecular hydrogen, ammonia from hydrogen and atmospheric nitrogen, hydrogen itself, generated from the solar or wind-powered electrolysis of water, and low-carbon plant and animal-based biofuels.
None of these fuels are currently available on a commercial scale, however, and port infrastructure that’s needed to store and pump them in a process called “bunkering” remains underdeveloped.
But shipping companies, port authorities and national energy providers are now working together to pick up the slack, with Europe at the lead.
Hamburg, straddling the Elbe River in north Germany, is Europe’s third-largest container port and a pioneer in port decarbonization.
Altenwerder terminal, on the south shore of the Elbe, was electrified from scratch and Burchardkai is now following suit. Stacking cranes there run on electricity, half generated by wind or solar power. They and the terminal trucks are battery-powered, supplemented by diesel when dealing with heavy loads, and hydrogen is being tested as a light vehicle fuel.
Port Hamburg has also set up shore-based chargers for vessels to plug into while at berth after powering down their engines, which run on heavy fuel oil.
And there are increasing efforts to use green fuels. At the annual conference last October of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH), also in Hamburg, members discussed the use of methanol, ammonia, biofuels and liquified natural gas (LNG) — a low-carbon “transition fuel” — almost too many new fuels for industry representatives to wrap their heads around.
“I don’t want to have here five, 10 fuels,” said Vinicius Patel, director of the Brazilian port of Açu. “We must have engines adaptable and flexible to run all of these different fuels.”
Preparedness tool kits are being developed for ports that want to bunker fuels like these. Over a hundred ports already bunker fossil methanol that’s available in massive quantities. Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port, was the first to bunker green methanol.
Rotterdam is also pioneering green shipping corridors — port-to-port partnerships featuring harmonized bunkering, shore-based power and digital systems designed to boost efficiency. A pair of green corridors now connect Rotterdam, Singapore and Gothenburg, Sweden.
In a related development, the IAPH, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) have set up a Clean Energy Marine Hubs platform under the direction of energy and transport ministers from Brazil, Canada, Greece, Norway, Panama, Uruguay and the United Arab Emirates.
The platform’s aim is to link world ports, shipping companies, fuel producers and national energy grids into a network of “energy-maritime value chains.” It’s meant to de-risk investment in both green fuels and the green electricity needed to produce them.
“We’re talking about the need to have those fuels,” said Nelson Mojarro, a driving force behind the platform. “Many countries in the energy sector are now thinking, as well, of maritime as an enabler of the energy transition.”
Rising demand for green shipping fuels may well drive expansion of renewable electricity. But there’s a long way to go. Wind and solar energy provide half of Europe’s power supply but just 15% in the United States.
At Port of New York and New Jersey, America’s third-largest container port, renewable power scarcity is a decarbonization bottleneck.
So are polluting truck engines. Three-quarters of the Port of New York and New Jersey cargo gets picked up by trucks running on diesel.
Mike Bozza, deputy port director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said that emission standards are being tightened. Backed by a grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Ports Program, the Port of New York and New Jersey is also installing charging stations for electric trucks to plug into.
The bottleneck is a result of just three-tenths of a percent of heavy-duty US trucks being electric. But with new charging stations installed, the Port of New York and New Jersey hopes to encourage more to come on board.
In the meantime, the Port of New York and New Jersey has also electrified its stacking cranes and is installing shore-based power for container ships at berth.
It’s also preparing to bunker the new shipping fuels, safely and efficiently, and is consulting with Europe’s three largest ports: Rotterdam, Antwerp-Bruges and Hamburg.
“The challenge is going to be, what’s going to be the winner; what’s going to be the fuel,” the Port Authority’s Bozza said.
German decarbonization expert Heino von Meyer, who attended last October’s world ports conference, agreed.
“I have not heard anyone arguing that this is not a priority,” Von Meyer said in response to debate over the IMO’s 2050 target.
“Everybody accepts it’s a huge challenge, but, OK, we have to address it,” he said. “What has to happen, we will have to make it happen.”