Towards Sustainable Shipping : A Sustainability Appraisal of Marine Fuels

The maritime industry must deal with several challenges and difficulties to tackle climate change. Organisations and companies are pursuing strategies to decarbonize the operations and provide an efficient and sustainable model for the shipping sector that would not damage the natural environment. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the European Union have implemented a set of regulations to tackle the rapid increase of Greenhouse Gas emissions, researching and developing new marine fuel technologies. Decision-making processes have been usually used with the participation of several stakeholders, concluding on an eventual ranking of several alternatives. However, this master thesis assesses with the aid of a Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methodology, and the Distance To Target weighting scheme four marine fuels technologies. It takes into consideration science-based targets, especially the Planetary Boundaries framework and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with the overall goal to assess the robustness of the results and compare them with other conducted analyses. The final results shows that hydrogen is defined as the most sustainable fuel, based on 5 selected criteria, followed by ammonia, LBG and LNG. However, there are differences between conventional MCDA and current research’s results when it comes to the weighting of the sustainability criteria, which is based on assumptions that have been made during the analysis. More accurate data on marine fuel technologies, and specific science-based targets for the maritime industry would assist decision-making methodologies, leading to objective outcomes.