A progress report from the Silk Alliance projects a strong and increasing demand for methanol and ammonia from 2030 onwards, according to LR's release.
It estimates more than 3 million tonnes of clean methanol and a minimum of 280,000 tonnes of clean ammonia will be required by 2030, to meet the demand of 137 ships in the cluster aligned to its implementation plan with potential for ammonia to scale 10-fold from 2030 to 2035. This is a key takeaway from analysis carried out by the cross-supply chain partnership, which now spans across three workstreams – fleet turnover and fuel demand, fuel supply and finance.
Since the Silk Alliance was formed in May 2022, a baseline fleet of 359 vessels was identified and a programme of activities and assessments were conducted to support consensus building within the Alliance, which culminated in the creation of an implementation plan in April 2023.
According to a modelling exercise undertaken by the Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub, which acts as the Secretariat of the Silk Alliance, by 2030, 98 newbuilds will be operational and 39 of the original fleet retrofitted, bringing the fleet operating on cleaner fuels to 137.
Members agreed to set the desired carbon intensity of the fuels between 20% and 10% in terms of life cycle emissions compared to fossil fuels.
The Silk Alliance was established in May 2022 by the LR Maritime Decarbonisation Hub, a joint initiative between Lloyd’s Register Group and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.