Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. became the first of the large Japanese
shipping companies to map out a plan to achieve zero emissions from its fleet
by 2050. Nikkei Asia is reporting that the company mapped out a plan to invest
$1.8 billion over the next three years as part of its overall plan to reduce
carbon emissions and develop new carbon-neutral businesses.
The company outlined its initiatives as part of a
presentation of its three-year business plan. Nikkei Asia points out that the
efforts to move the company away from fossil fuels and its traditional
operations is the first detailed presentation provided by the shipping giant.
In the 2020 presentation, the company offered generalized statements about a
transition without details or dates.
Near-term, MOL reports that it will be working to increase
its use of LNG as a fuel for an increasing portion of its fleet. The company
has already announced new car carriers and ferries that will be operating on
LNG as their primary fuel source. The company now also plans a transition for a
larger portion of its tankers fleet.
"LNG looks almost certain to be the leading
next-generation fuel of the 2020s" amid the decarbonization trend, company
President Takeshi Hashimoto said in a virtual news conference Nikkei Asia
reports. The goal is for a third or more of the fleet to transition to the use
of LNG fuel for propulsion over the next decade.
Similar to all the major shipping companies, MOL reports it
is also exploring the emerging fuel technologies. "We will also need to
switch to new alternative fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia," Hashimoto
said, discussing the company’s objective to reach net-zero for its GHG
emissions.
Recently the company has also discussed a number of its
other initiatives design to reduce emissions and improve the performance of the
shipping fleet. MOL took charge of the Wind Challenger project in 2018, which
had previously started as an academic program. The company is working to
complete the development of the technology which seeks to use a telescopic hard
sail that converts wind energy to propulsive force. Recently, MOL announced
that it was working with a customer on the development of a design to use the
Wind Challenger on a bulker. The company has scheduled 2022 for the release of
the technology and is aiming to launch its first vessel with the sail, a coal
carrier, by 2022.
The company has also announced efforts to enter new business
lines tied to the emerging opportunities in renewable energy. MOL has taken
steps to launch businesses in the offshore wind power segment and is also
exploring wave and marine energy. MOL is also participating in the partnership
to introduce Tokyo’s LNG bunkering vessel.
Last month, MOL announced it is making its first foray into
the liquefied CO2 ocean transport business invested in Norway’s AS Larvik
Shipping, a shipping company specializing in the transport of CO2. The
companies said they will explore the adoption of larger vessels to expand both
upstream and downstream and in the carbon capture utilization and storage value
chain.