Infrared image of heat and gas emissions being released from a vessel
An investigation by Transport & Environment (T&E) has revealed that unburnt methane – a potent greenhouse gas – being released from ‘supposedly green’ ships.
According to International Maritime Organisarion (IMO) data, it has been estimated that, depending on the engine, 0.2% to over 3% of fossil gas slips from the combustion process and is being released directly into the atmosphere.
For this reason, T&E estimated that around 80% of liquefied natural gas (LNG) today is burned in an engine with worse greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than traditional engines running dirty fuel oil.
Delphine Gozlilon, shipping officer at T&E, said: “Europe has a dirty secret at sea. In promoting LNG shops, European policymakers are locking us into a future of fossil gas.
“The ships may be painted green, but, beneath the surface, the truth is that most LNG ships on the market today are more damaging than the fossil ships they’re supposed to replace.”
T&E undertook it’s investigation on a clear November day at the Port of Rotterdam, using a state of the art infrared camera with a special filter to detect hydrocarbon gasses.
As LNG is typically 90% methane, any unburnt fuel that slips through the engine will also be primarily composed of the climate warning gas.
T&E was able to clearly observe significant methane emissions from two ships.
The first was from French shipping company’s CMA CGM’s LNG-powered Louvre vessel.
CMA CGM claims that its LNG vessels enable a significant reduction in CO2 emissions per container.
The company is heavily investing in LNG, stating that “LNG is the best solution currently available to reduce the impact of shipping.”
A peer review carried out by TCHD Consulting, an optical gas imaging consultancy, the images from the Louvre are evidence that intense uncombusted hydrocarbon emissions were being released from three exhaust vents into the atmosphere above the ship.
The second LNG-powered ship that T&E was able to track is was the dredging vessel Eco-Delta.
Uncombusted and partially combusted emissions were documented, with methane being released from two exhaust stacks on the front of the ship.
Shipowners commissioned more gas-fuelled ships in 2021 than the previous four years combined, with LNG promoted as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels.
The fossil gas industry continues to lobby for LNG as a green shipping solution, pointing to low methane slippage based on their own data in what T&E says is increasingly looking like a ‘methane-gate’.
Last year the EU proposed carbon intensity targets for marine fuels which would force shipowners to move away from residual fuel oil – the most widely used fuel today.
However T&E has warned that without sustainability safeguards this will simply lock in LNG as the cheapest alternative.
