New tool to accelerate safe, green maritime transition

A new scenario-based digital tool helps the maritime sector adopt methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen by clarifying risks and regulatory gaps for safe, compliant green-fuel transitions.

The maritime industry is facing a massive shift towards greener, less CO2-intensive fuels. But the transition will only happen if the alternative fuels can be implemented in a safe and compliant way.

A new report from DBI is now giving the industry a clearer route to adopting these fuels without compromising safety. The METAFUEL project has mapped the hazards of methanol, ammonia and hydrogen across the full fuel-handling chain and turned that knowledge into a scenario-based decision tool intended to guide safer design and retrofitting in the maritime industry.

“The green transition will be impossible without safety. You want to be able to load your cargo or passengers without thinking twice if it is a methanol-powered ship. The entire value chain needs to make sure that regardless of fuel, it is 'just a ship'", says Leonard Sang Tuei from DBI, project leader for the METAFUEL project.

Gap analysis turned into decision tool

At the heart of METAFUEL is a digital decision-support concept that links fuel properties, ship zones, regulatory requirements and known knowledge gaps. Users input who they are (for example shipyard, equipment maker, insurer or authority), choose a fuel and select a fuel-handling zone such as bunkering, storage, fuel preparation or engine room. The tool then outputs safety considerations, risk-reduction “safety functions,” relevant IMO and class rules, and the gaps that still need evidence or regulation.

“Let's say you are a shipowner wanting to retrofit a cargo vessel into using methanol. Once you've given that input, the tool generates a list of regulatory gaps concerning the engine room and the fuel preparation room. But the really smart part is that the tool also identifies recommended or suggested actions for all the identified gaps," says Leonard Sang Tuei.

New fuels, new challenges

Alternative fuels have different properties than conventional fuels, and these differences produce new challenges. Ammonia is toxic, Methanol fires with their invisible flames can be difficult to detect and extinguish, and pressurized hydrogen storage tanks can explode or produce long jet flames.

The gap-analysis matrix in METAFUEL benchmarks each fuel against four shipboard zones using a safety-lens version of NASA’s Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). The analysis shows methanol is closest to commercial maturity, ammonia sits mid-development, and hydrogen remains early-prototype for ship combustion systems.

"DBI has simulated ammonia leaks in the Port of Rønne, we have experimented with the optimal water mist configuration for methanol pool fires, and we have done research into hydrogen jet flames. We can't say we have bridged all the gaps, but the report brings the industry a lot closer to a safer implementation of these fuels", says Leonard Sang Tuei.