The shipping industry mainly uses heavy oils as fuel. This leads to the emission not only of greenhouse gases but also of substances harmful to human health and the environment. Stricter requirements on ships' emissions of sulfur, particles and nitrogen oxides in the North Sea are being introduced during 2010-2016. A very interesting and realistic alternative to catalytic converters and diesel is LNG. LNG stands for Liquefied Natural Gas and consists of natural gas cooled to minus 163 degrees. Then the gas changes over into liquid form.
Since the natural gas in liquid form takes much less space than an equivalent quantity of compressed gas, the ships can carry enough fuel. This means that the liquefied natural gas is an alternative to the heavy oils that shipping has traditionally used as fuel.
The use of LNG results in significantly lower emissions of particles, sulfur and nitrogen. In addition, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 20% compared to diesel.
Göteborg Energi is a key player in the field and is planning an LNG facility in the port of Gothenburg in order to provide shipping with liquid fuel. This is scheduled for completion in 2013. Other west Swedish operators in LNG for shipping are Cryo, Wärtsilä and shipping companies such as Stena and Topoil.
