Welcome back to another week of all things Tech in maritime. This week, we are focusing on decarbonisation technology and how you can set your organisation up for success. Oh, and of course, we’ll cover all of the top tech news over the past 7 days.

This week, I spoke to Jan Seidl-Zelenka, a mechanical engineer turned decarbonisation technology expert at DS NORDEN, one of the world's largest dry bulk shipping companies, which has recently expanded into Multi-purpose general cargo vessels. Operating around 500 vessels at any given time, NORDEN has been trialling alternative fuels since 2018, making Jan uniquely positioned to discuss both the promise and practicalities of maritime decarbonisation technologies.

Jan’s area of focus currently is around alternative fuels, more specifically biofuels, so that seemed like a logical place to start our discussion. Clarksons reported that 45% of ships ordered in 2023 would be capable of running on alternative fuels, highlighting this as a popular solution for a shipping company looking to reduce its emissions. 

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But newbuilds and retrofits aren’t the only way to go green: “For every single fuel vessel, you might be able to retrofit it, but that's a very costly option. Or you could find a drop-in fuel that reduces the greenhouse gas emissions but uses the same machinery without any major modification."

This is the strategy DS NORDEN have been following since 2018. The ability to drop biofuels straight into fossil fuel engines has proved both successful and cost-effective for the company. Jan explained, "At NORDEN, we completed our first trial of a B100, so 100% biodiesel back in 2018 in commercial vessel operation... since then, we gradually increased the uptake of this fuel in our operated fleet."

For any CIOs looking to or already implementing alternative fuels, developing digital workflows to manage biofuel procurement, quality verifications, and supplier transparency requirements through existing ERP and procurement systems will be among your main challenges.

You could spend all the money in the world on reducing emissions, but if you can’t effectively measure and track improvements, you can only make assumptions.

While on paper, biofuels appear to be a cheap solution to the industry’s shift away from fossil fuels, Jan discussed some of the reasons why shipping companies may be hesitant to take the plunge.

Firstly, "Maritime is very traditional, very conservative. So they know their fossil fuel grades, they know how they work, they know how to treat it on board the vessel, what risks are involved with using fossil fuels.” This kind of knowledge and understanding has built up through decades of fossil fuel consumption. For green fuels, there is still a level of uncertainty; trials are continuously being reviewed and refinements to formulas constantly being made.

By ensuring your organisation has robust digital data collection and analytical capabilities, CIOs are able to create digital dashboards and reporting systems that provide real-time transparency on technology performance, costs, and benefits to build trust with ship owners, charterers and other key stakeholders.

Jan believes that the only way for the maritime industry to fully trust alternative fuels, it's up to the industry giants to spend on trialling these 'risky' fuels because smaller shipping companies can't afford to take the risk. As he puts it, "The bigger companies are able to take more risks. The ones who have maybe a better financial background to take a certain risk and then share their findings."

He emphasises that smaller operators simply don't have the resources: "Give information to smaller ship owners, for example, that only have one, two, three vessels, who don’t have the capacity to employ a team of experts that then can dive deep into all of this new and expensive technology."

The key then becomes sharing information and findings "It's all about information sharing… Sharing is caring."

You can support the sharing of knowledge by advocating for the creation of standardised APIs that enable seamless data sharing with suppliers, classification societies, and industry research organisations to ensure everybody is sailing in the same direction.

Jan's message is clear… The tide is turning, and those who hoard knowledge will be left behind whilst those who share it will advance together.

And that’s all she wrote… At least for this week. Join me back here in 7 days for more industry insights. All the best, Ailsa