A coalition of shipping leaders has joined together to identify, accelerate and advocate technology solutions to measure and manage shipboard methane emissions activity.
The Methane Abatement in Maritime (MAM) innovation initiative aims to minimise the environmental impact of LNG in shipping, whilst aiding the transition to future fuel solutions.
Led by Safetytech Accelerator, established by Lloyd’s Register (LR), MAM is a technology acceleration programme whose activities will initially be supported by seven partners: Maran Gas Maritime, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Carnival Corp, Seaspan, Shell, LR and the Knutsen Group.
It will also make use of academics, civil society, and other stakeholders expertise, such as the National Physical Laboratory.
In the first year, members will seek to identify and pilot new technologies to monitor and reduce ‘methane slip’ from vessels fuelled by LNG. Once these solutions have been validated, the initiative will seek to endorse them to industry from 2023.
This initiative will tackle how shipowners and operators can be encouraged to adopt proven abatement technology at scale.
MAM will be chaired by Panagiotis Mitrou, LR’s Global Gas Director, and directed by Safetytech Accelerator’s Head of Partnerships, Steve Price.
To date, there are no globally recognised methods for measuring methane slip – with a lack of available data and tools contributing to the issue.
It is hoped that the new solutions identified by the innovation initiative will help the industry to understand the extent of, and then manage, their methane emissions activities.
Measuring the scale of methane emissions, and understanding if they can be managed to negligible levels, will signal if liquefied bio methane (LBM) and liquefied synthetic methane (LSM) are viable pathway fuels to help achieve 2050 de-carbonisation targets.
